S&H Green Stamps

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:For UK/Ireland operations see Green Shield Stamps

S&H Green Stamps (also called Green Shield Stamps) were a form of trading stamps popular in the United States between the 1930s and early 1980s. They were a rewards program operated by the Sperry and Hutchinson company (S and H), founded in 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. Customers would receive stamps at the checkout counter of supermarkets, department stores, and gas stations among other retailers, which could be redeemed for products in the catalog.

Currently the company operates S&H greenpoints, a digital version of Green Stamps.

Sperry & Hutchinson began offering stamps to USA retailers back in 1896. The retail organizations bought the stamps from S&H and gave them as bonuses with every purchase based on the amount you bought. The stamps were given away at filling stations, corner shops and supermarkets, with shoppers presented with stamps based on the size of their purchase. Collect enough of them and be able to face licking them to stick them into collectors books (a past time often given to amuse children), and the shopper could claim valuable prizes from your local Green Shield shop or catalogue.

Green Shield Stamp \"syndrome\"

Green Shield Stamps were successful as a business, not because they encouraged people to buy goods in proportion to the sales value - they made money because so many receivers of Green Shield Stamps never cashed them in. Sticking the stamps in was painful and time consuming. This became known as Green Shield Stamp syndrome, which is now also a deliberate and intentional problem common with rebates.

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