We all remember the phrase “We Give Green Stamps!” – that enticement to shop at that grocery store or gas station. It was fun to paste them into your collection book, and when you’ve got some filled, to pick out your prizes! The Twin Cities had many kinds of trading stamps through the years, some connected to particular store chains, some unrestricted. Here are the kinds of trading stamps that folks from St. Louis Park would have seen in the 1950s and ’60s, the heyday of the Green Stamp. Oh, and go to youtube.com and enter Green Stamps in the search box – lots of old commercials and Allen Sherman’s parody of “Green Eyes.”
Gift House Stamps
Gold Bond Stamps were established in 1938 by Curtis L. Carlson, who used a $55 loan to start the company. Carlson used Gold Bond Stamps to provide consumer incentive for grocery stores. They expanded to gas stations and other businesses. In 1953 it was the first of the trading stamp companies to use the facilities of a major grocery wholesaler (Super Valu) to introduce the concept into several hundred stores at once. The mascot for Gold Bond was Sandy Saver, a winking Scotchman who perpetuated the common stereotype that people from Scotland were especially thrifty. Collectors of the stamps could redeem them for a large variety of merchandise, from a set of steak knives up to a mink coat. During the 1950s, Carlson was the largest supplier of mink coats in the United States. In 1956 the company was located at 1629 Hennepin Ave.
Trading stamps became passe by the late 1960s. In 1973 the company was renamed Carlson Companies, Inc., and it diversified into the hospitality, corporate incentive, and travel industries. In 1989 the company moved to new buildings in Minnetonka.
Red Owl Cash Dividend Stamps
S&H Green Stamps
S&H stood for Sperry and Hutchinson. These were by far the most popular stamps, given out by many different businesses as an incentive to buy from them. According to Wikipedia, Sperry & Hutchinson started their green stamp business in 1896. The undated photo below shows the Minneapolis Trading Stamp Co. and the Sperry & Hutchinson Co. on the St. Francis Hotel, 612-616 Hennepin Ave.
The photo below is described as an S&H Green Stamp “store” – presumably a redemption center. The address was 945 West University Ave. in St. Paul.
