A flashback in time — S & H Green Stamps
This might be something only us “old timers” recollect — S & H Green Stamps.
I came across this strolling on the worldwide internet and it brought back memories of my preteen years of staying with my grandparents after school until my mother picked me and my brother up after work.
I remember my grandmother (my dad’s mother) getting the stamps each week when she and my grandfather went grocery shopping.
She would take the stamps and put them in a little booklet filling the pages. She would fill up several booklets and then scan the little catalog to place an order.
Gift stamps were common throughout the United States until the late 1980s. Customers received stamps at the checkout counters of supermarkets, department stores and gasoline stations among other retailers, which could then be redeemed for products from the catalog.
During the 1960s, S & H Green Stamps issued more stamps than the U.S. Postal Service and distributed 35 million catalogs a year.
S&H Green Stamps had several competitors including Greenbax Stamps offered by Piggly Wiggly. I worked at Piggly Wiggly in Waycross during my junior and senior years of high school and remember cashiers handing stamps out.
The amount of stamps was based on the dollar amount of a purchase. The stamps were issued in denominations of one, 10, and 50 points.
Some shoppers chose one merchant over another because they gave out more stamps per dollar spent.
The books contained 24 pages and filling a page required 50 points, so each book contained 1,200 points.
Here’s some more nostalgia from when times seemed better — at least in our mind.
In 1970, you could visit McDonald’s and enjoy a hamburger (28 cents), French fries (26 cents) and a shake (35 cents) for 89 cents. For a nickle more, you have a cheeseburger.
Today, that meal will set you back more than $10 with a hamburger costing $2.19, large fries $3.15 -$3.99 (depending on size) and $3.99 to $4.69, (size) for a milkshake.
Of course back then there were no drivethru windows or cell phones holding apps to place orders.
A ticket to the movies was around $1.50 (at least $10 now). Minimum wage was $1.60 and now, depending on the state, anywhere from $7.25 (34 states) to upwards of $20-plus (California).
Gasoline was about 36 cents a gallon and was pumped by a gas station attendant, who also washed the windshield, offered to check the oil, water and tires.
Currently, the average price in Georgia is $2.92 after peaking at $4.33 in June 2022. There is no extra service since independent gas stations are nearly a thing of the past, just like having a landline for phone service.
• Rick Head is the Publisher and Editor of The Brantley Beacon and the Waycross Journal-Herald. He can be reached at beacon@ btconline.net
