S&H Green Stamps
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'S&H Green Stamps' (also called Green Shield Stamps) were a form of trading stamps popular in the United States from the 1930s until the late 1980s. They were distributed as part of a rewards program operated by the Sperry and Hutchinson company (S&H), founded during 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson. During the 1960s, the rewards catalog printed by the company was the largest publication in the United States and the company issued three times as many stamps as the U.S. Postal Service.[1] Customers would receive stamps at the checkout counter of supermarkets, department stores, and gasoline stations among other retailers, which could be redeemed for products in the catalog.
S&H Green Stamps had several competitors, including Triple S Stamps (offered by Grand Union Supermarkets), Blue Chip Stamps, and Plaid Stamps (a project of A&P Supermarkets).
[edit] History
Sperry & Hutchinson began offering stamps to U.S. retailers during 1896. The retail organizations that distributed the stamps (primarily supermarkets, gasoline filling stations, and shops) bought the stamps from S&H and gave them as bonuses to shoppers based on the dollar amount of a purchase. The stamps—-issued in denominations of one, ten, and fifty "points"—-were perforated with a gummed reverse, and as shoppers accumulated the stamps they moistened the reverse and mounted them in collectors books, which were provided free by S&H. Shoppers could then exchange filled books for premiums, including housewares and other items, from the local Green Stamps store or catalog. Each premium was assigned a value expressed by the number of filled stamp books required to obtain that item.
Some states equated the green stamps to gambling and required merchants to obtain an expensive license. Few did, however, making their popularity vary substantially from one state to the next. The company also traded overseas. During the early 1960s, it initiated S&H Pink Stamps in the United Kingdom, having been beaten to their green shield trademark during 1958 by Richard Tompkins's Green Shield Trading Stamp Company.[2]
The Green Stamps programme in Canada operated much as the original American program.
The program had its greatest popularity during the mid 1960's, but a series of recessions during the 1970's decreased sales of green stamps and the stamp programs of their competitors.
Sperry and Hutchinson was sold by the founders' successors during 1981, and was purchased from a holding firm by a member of the founding Sperry family during 1999. At that time, only about 100 U.S. stores were offering Green Stamps. Eventually, though, the company rebounded[citation needed] with the beginning of the Internet and now offers "greenpoints" as rewards for online purchases.[3]
Currently the company operates as S&H Solutions and offers S&H Greenpoints, a digital version of Green Stamps, which can be earned online and in participating grocery locations.
On December 7, 2006, it was announced that S&H Solutions was purchased by San Francisco based Pay By Touch. The purchase price was in excess of $100 million in cash and stock. Pay by Touch has since become bankrupt, but S&H still survives as a division of YOU Technology where it is part of their retail portfolio.
[edit] References
- ^ S&H Solutions | About S&H
- ^ Richard Davenport-Hines (2004). "Tompkins, (Granville) Richard Francis (1918–1992)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51347. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
- ^ S&H greenpoints
