This battered sign for S&H Green Stamps hung outside Mishkin’s Pharmacy on West 145th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, along with old-school neon signs, for decades before a recent renovation.
S&H, which stood for the Sperry Hutchinson Company founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly B. Hutchinson, was the most prominent “rewards program” in which stamps were given out at checkout counters in retail stores, gasoline stations and even movie theaters around the country which could later be redeemed for goods in the Sperry Hutchinson catalog. S&H thrived for decades until the company was sold in 1981 and then gradually lost favor until 1999 when only 100 establishments around the country were offering them. S&H still maintains an online presence.
Entrepreneur Anthony Zolezzi has purchased the rights to S&H and hopes to revive the brand in 2015.
12/4/14
5 comments
I remember when A&P gave out Plaid Stamps, which I guess were their version of Green Stamps. My folks collected them for a while. I don’t remember where, or if, they ever redeemed them. It seemed like a good idea at the time…
Wow! I remember S&H Green Stamps in their various forms growing up in the 60s! There were also Triple-S Blue Stamps given out in some stores and A&P had their own Plaid Stamps. My parents had books for all three (3); they also collected Raleigh Coupons. In the early 60s, I remember the cashiers having to count and hand out the sheets of stamps, having to tear the last sheet to give you the right number of stamps. Later on, I remember the beige boxes above the registers with telephone style rotary dials in 1s, 10s and 100s stamp values; the multiple value stamps being added in the mid 60s. I’d get to (have to) paste the stamps into the books – I’d use a damp sponge to slap entire sheets onto the pages.
And of course, there was the catalog – some of those pages were like the Sears Christmas Catalog (Wish Book) to me. There was an S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center at Packard’s in Hackensack. My parents made the mistake of taking us kids with them when they went to get the blender they wanted. We got toys. I got a Lincoln Log set in a square tube; I don’t remember what my brother and sister got. So much for my parents getting a blender. Funny, they always ordered from the catalog after that (and they got their Waring Blender too).
– Jeff
I also remember going grocery shopping with my grandmother in the 60s and pasting the S&G Green Stamps we received into the redemption books, which were used to purchase small household items. Thanks again, Kevin, for another great blast from the past!
If you went to the S&H store in downtown Bklyn to get a “gift”(as they called it)
you could be sure they were always out of the item you wanted.
Green Stamps are one scam the public doesn’t fall for anymore
Mad mag. had a picture once of a stamp book dripping with saliva from licking and pasting all those stamps in there.
GROSSSSS!!!!
Grew up in Bellerose. In the late 60’s Plaid Stamps opened a redemption center at 249-12 Hillside Ave. in the former Dilbert’s grocery store building. One of the construction workers outfitting the store referred to it as a ‘plant store’ – his term for this type of location. Despite the large number of deliveries made to it each day, it did seem that what you wanted was always out of stock.