Stamps Green S&H Rewards Customer Loyalty Eslpod Programs

S&H Green Stamps were "stamps" (pieces of paper with a printed image and text on one side, and a glue that becomes sticky when wet on the other side) that Americans collected from the 1930s through the 1980s. They were part of a customer loyalty and rewards program. People received the rectangular, green stamps when they made purchases at certain grocery stores, drugstores, and gas stations. They would carefully "paste" (glue) the stamps into small paper books, add up the total number of stamps, and "redeem" (exchange) large numbers of stamps for rewards advertised in a "catalog" (a large magazine that describes all the products that are available for sale) of products.

Most modern customer loyalty programs reward customers for shopping at a particular store, but the S&H Green Stamps were different. "Retailers" (stores that sell products to the public) could buy the stamps from Sperry & Hutchinson (S&H) and then "distribute" (give away to many people) them to their own customers when they made purchases. This "freed the retailers from" (made it so the retailers did not have to worry about) "administering" (managing) the reward and redemption process. And consumers were rewarded for their combined purchases at many different places of business.

The S&H Green Stamps were available in different "denominations" (the value or amount of money that something is worth). The 24-page books could hold up to 1,200 points, and rewards were redeemed by sending in the required number of books. Most of the rewards were "household goods" (items used in the house, especially in the kitchen). But over time, the value of the points "diminished" (decreased) and consumers began to believe that the stamps were more "hassle" (the inconvenience and work required to collect and organized stamps) than they were worth.