Trading Stamps

Last week, I was driving with my son and we passed the gas station. I looked at how high the prices were and commented that years ago when you went to fill up your car, you would say "five dollars or fill it up". Most times the fill up came before the five dollars. Then I told him that not only did we get gas, but we also got drinking glasses and S&H stamps.He looked at me like I was weird. Why would they give out stamps? I explained what S&H stamps were. The practice started in the 1890s, at first given only to customers who paid for purchases in cash, to reward those who did not purchase on credit. Credit, in those days, meant that you put you had a running tab with the shopkeeper and paid it off monthly. Giving stamps grew with the spread of chain gas stations, in the early 1910s and the new industry of chain supermarkets, in the 1920s. Merchants then found it better to award stamps to all customers. Trading stamps were most popular from the 1930s through the 1960s. An example of the value of trading stamps, would be during the 1970s and 1980s when one stamp was for given for 10¢ of merchandise that was purchased. A typical book took approximately 1200 stamps to fill, or the equivalent of $120.00 in purchases. When you filled up your book of stamps, you would browse through a catalog, and pick out the items you wanted. You then went to the redemption center and traded in the stamp books, for the gifts. That is how most families were able to afford the simple luxuries like toasters and pots and pans. Then, I joked with him, that he would never have the pleasure of experiencing a glue coated tongue.