I remember them. I also remember having great ideas for my mom to spend them on but she never agreed. She always got something boring with them.

My Mother collected and redeemed them, mostly for kitchen items. I remember the redemption outlet was a place of wonderment for a child. Went in with an shoe box of paper stamps and came out with a toaster. What a great time in life. So much simpler.

My wife collects cereal box coupons to donate. More effort than what they're probably worth though.

Top Value Stamps. Kroger gave them out so Mom always shopped there.

When I was old enough to read, she got me a Bible with them. In high school, she got me a dictionary. When I went away to college, she got me a Samsonite suitcase.
Still have all three.

My mom did both; however, Top Value had a local redemption center on Bardstown Rd in Louisville, and Green Stamps had to be mailed (IIRC).

I know exactly where you are describing in Montgomery. My brother lives near there.

I remember there being a roll of S&H green stamps at every grocery store checkout. One of my earliest memories is of going to a stamp redemption store and picking a toy out.

My mom collected S&H Green Stamps and I remember going to the S&H store to redeem them with her. I think we stopped doing that in the mid/late 70's?

My parents got a lot of "stuff" with S+H Green Stamps. I remember my Mom sitting at the kitchen table using a damp sponge to moisten the stamps. One time Nickey Chevrolet gave green stamps with a new car purchase. My Dad bought a 64 Impala and got a boatload of stamps.

S&H in our East Texas town. Redeemedin a larger town 35 miles away. We never seemed to collect a very large amount, or at least I don't remember anything significant that we might have redeemed. Probably went out of our lives in the mid to late 60's....

My parents collected S&H. AFAIK, they redeemed for a Black & Decker drill and his & hers bowling balls. I recall my dad receiving some at a Martin gas station in the late 60's.

My mom used them. She also clipped coupons from the Sunday newspaper every week. I would go grocery shopping with her as a child (1960s) and she would check out with a handful of coupons every time. She knew how to stretch a dollar. Young people these days have never worked through a bad economy...yet.

To this day, I shop with coupons. I save 5-15 dollars every time I buy groceries. Many are from the annual coupon books you can buy at Costco. I buy 20 of the books and use them throughout the year. You can save about $1000-$1500 (net of booklet costs) off grocery and restaurant costs over one year. That pays for a fine addition to the gun safe every year

Interesting fact: Most people up to 30 years old have never worked through a nasty recession. Of course there were a few teenagers who were working in 2008/2009, but not many. There is so much complacency of late. The next recession will be a serious re-set. I remember well the feeling from mid year 2008 through 2009, early 2000 through late 2002, and even back to late 1987 when the stock market dropped 20% in one day. Look at today's indices and do that math for a modern equivalent. I listened to industry old-timers (back then) who worked through 1973/74 and also the inflation crisis of 1980-81. Our current generation of young people have not yet lived through a financial crisis and the inevitable subsequent bad economy. They will, and it will open their minds. Frankly, they will not know what hit them. When you can not get a job and pay the bills, you forget about stuff that "triggers" your "peace of mind". Many modern young people need to learn how to COPE.

This is not a blanket statement. My niece is a NAVY ROTC 4.0 Physics major, and wants to fly jets off carriers. God Bless Her.

Getting back to the topic: Shoppers in the 50s/60s/70s used green stamps and other coupons, because they knew the history of hard times. Either personally or certainly from their parents or grandparents. Today, not so much.

OK, done rambling. I like stamps and coupons.

My mother and grandmother both collected and used S&H green stamps. Grandma did so until about '83 as fewer and fewer places gave them out. Usually they got household goods and small appliances. Pa for a while smoked Raleigh cigarettes and collected the coupons from Brown and Williamson (B&W). S&H store was about 25 miles away, Pa mailed the B&W coupons in IIRC.

My mom collected Green stamps. She would accumulate enough to make a trip to the store worthwhile, and we would go. I don't remember what she used them for. Since they were sort of "mad money," she would give us kids some amount of stamps and let us get whatever we wanted. I can't remember anything I bought with them, but it was a rare enough event to have a shopping trip where I could get what I wanted that I remember doing it.

It must have been in the early to mid '70s that we last used the things.

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:
.. feeding the books of stamps through a machine that punched holes in them to “cancel” them.

I worked at the S&H in Miami in the mid 60's. The machine that punched holes was cool -- I'd save the holes (chad if you will) and use them as confetti at football games. Pissed off those below me when the humidity was high (Miami remember) -- they stuck securely because of the glue on the stamps.

Tinyman

Mom used them for a variety of home goods. She would have me stick them in the books each time we got some

I still have a number of the green glass glassware

A set of the multi colored mixing bowls are still in use

I’m sure my father has more items I’d have to look and see

quote:

Originally posted by P-220:
Ok, none of you under the age of 45-50 likely have any idea of what I am talking about.

For all of us mature members, which did you collect and when did you last redeem them.

We moved to Cincy in 1972 and I remember the Top Value redemption center, located across from Camargo Cadillac, on Montgomery Road, in Montgomery.

My parents focused on Top Value and I remember going once a year to redeem them. The last thing I remember them getting, was American Tourister luggage.

Any idea when they ceased to exist?

WOW, I feel old.

My mom used to collect these, and I remember when I was around 8 or 9 years old (1984ish) we bought a trampoline with those stamps. IIRC

If/when another recession hits, the millenials will head to the nearest ugly teller. They think that's where money is made fresh daily.

They'll wish they had saved something every paycheck.

quote:

Originally posted by mo4040:
My parents collected S&H. AFAIK, they redeemed for a Black & Decker drill and his & hers bowling balls. I recall my dad receiving some at a Martin gas station in the late 60's.

Remember "Purple Martin Ethyl"