There was also a green stamp store on Penn across from Penn Square Mall if memory serves correct.

Mama was big on those. Not so big she only shopped where she could get them, but yeah, she kept up with her stamps.

I always loved going to the Green Stamp Store.

I remember going with my mom to the S&H store where she traded off books of stamps. She also traded Top Value stamps as well. There was a Top Value on NW Expressway east of May Ave, and the S&H was further on the west side of Penn just north of NW Expressway.

There was many an afternoon as a kid I helped my mom fill up her S&H green stamp book, and after a while we'd go to one of the stores that I think was off I-35 around SE 29th, on the west side of a building that housed the old Medco catalog showroom. Think there was at least another one perhaps over in Grant Square, but that's a fleeting memory at best. Was always fascinated by the big machines on top of the old cash registers that looked like big telephone dials they'd use to spit out the stamps. Fun memories.

Never got into the Top Value stamps.

My mom would give me some of the books to spend as a reward if I was on my best behavior. I could look through the stuff for hours trying to decide what to pick. It was kind of like winning the lottery as a 6 year old.

Not only do I remember Green Stamps . . . I also remember Gold Bond Stamps.
But we were a Green Stamp family. We had books and books of them.
Stashed in the closet, next to the pile of National Geographic magazines.

Weren't the yellow stamps called Top Value? We used to collect those too. They had a store on NW Expressway & May near Charcoal Oven.

When I was a kid, we shopped primarily at the Safeway that used to be in the Southwestern Plaza on 59th and Western (and one later on S. Shields in the Shields Plaza long before that area became such a dive), the Buchanan's at SW 89th and Penn, and (much less frequently) the Jim's IGA next to the grand old TG&Y Family Center at 74th and Penn. Pretty sure that two of those three gave out S&H Green stamps, but I think Jim's IGA gave away the Top Value variety.

I remember those old S&H catalogs - as I recall, they had some pretty decent stuff in there if you were diligent in saving the stamps. It was like a cash-era version of today's credit card loyalty points, I suppose, but I recall the S&H stuff being a bit more practical and achievable than the stuff in my credit card's "rewards" catalog... :) I mean, they tend to push the exotic things like trips and big TV's that take four zillion points to redeem, but I recall my mom getting some nice household things like a card table and chairs, a stepstool, useful if unspectacular things that made it worthwhile to spend a few minutes on a regular basis getting the stamps wet and filling the books....

Weren't the yellow stamps called Top Value? We used to collect those too. They had a store on NW Expressway & May near Charcoal Oven.

Yes, that's the one. Almost directly across from Target,.. but before it was Target.

I remember them, but barely. I remember going with my mom to the green stamp store, but I was maybe in Kindergarden then.

I am probably a bit older than many who post but I remember as a kid going to a stamp redemption place near 23rd and Broadway. Does anyone recall that place? Is my memory correct?

I remember my mom having a big drawer filled with green stamp books and sitting down with her to lick and stick them into the books.

I have a large ... maybe 4' x 4', S & H Green stamp sign in my garage.

I also recall standing in the checkout line at the grocery store as the cashier dialed out the proper amount from Green Stamps on the rotary dispenser next to the cash register.

There was also a green stamp store on Penn across from Penn Square Mall if memory serves correct.Absolutely correct. Does anyone remember "bowling for Green Stamps" on weekend nights? It used to be a regular ritual at my house in the 70s. Three colored pins in each rack, and if they showed up as the headpin and you got a strike, you won stamps.

Seems to me that before the S&H store on Penn opened, there was an area of John A. Brown's downtown store (on the First Street side) that was a Green Stamp redemption center. That would have been in the 40s or 50s...

My mom also used to collect something purple. I think they were called Pride Stamps. Similar concept to Green Stamps.

I also recall " Gold Bond Stamps"

The only green stamps I remember are the ones that are in my stamp collection.

Ah, green stamps. The reason I grew up with a partial encyclopedia set, and when nice company came we ate off of mismatched china.

Ah, green stamps. The reason I grew up with a partial encyclopedia set, and when nice company came we ate off of mismatched china.

:) ... the same can be said for the old gas station premiums we used to get when the folks would fill up.

I too have memories of my Mom and green stamps. We did most our grocery shopping at the Base Commissary wherever my Dad was stationed and I don't think they gave out stamps.

I bought a Honda CRX in 1987 @ Steve Baily Honda and was given GREEN STAMPS when I purchased the car. I promptly went over to the redemption center on S. Western and got Corning cookware and a croquet set.

I got so tired of putting those darn things into the books. However they allowed many folks to get some nice stuff. I still have a book or two packed away in the attic.

I believe in some of the stores, you could get baby chickens and ducks around Easter. Eat that, Walmart.

i grew up in the 80's and as a little kid thought that food stamps and green stamps were one in the same... i mean, you got them where you bought food, right? i don't think my folks appreciated me telling people we were on food stamps. -M

We got Green Stamps, Top Value, and those blue ones. Anyone remember Gunn Brothers Stamps?

There was many an afternoon as a kid I helped my mom fill up her S&H green stamp book, and after a while we'd go to one of the stores that I think was off I-35 around SE 29th, on the west side of a building that housed the old Medco catalog showroom. Think there was at least another one perhaps over in Grant Square, but that's a fleeting memory at best. Was always fascinated by the big machines on top of the old cash registers that looked like big telephone dials they'd use to spit out the stamps. Fun memories.

Never got into the Top Value stamps.

I think you mean 44th and I-35 where the bingo hall is now. My parents always went to that one after we visited the grandparents who lived off 36th and High. We would usually hit the Dairy Queen (closed and later burned down) or the A&W (Now Pizza 44) before the Green Stamp store. My siblings and I and would hang out in the car listen to the radio and eat are lunch/ice cream while Mom and Dad shopped. These days doing that would earn a one way trip to the county hotel.

I remember the S&H Green Stamp redemption center in the Redding
Shopping Center on the N.W. corner of S.W. 44th and S. Western.

We didn't do a lot of business there because Mom was more interested in
saving money at the moment instead of getting gifts in the future. Kids
didn't understand that. I learned a lot about economics from Mom.

Curious...

Does anyone remember Gunn Brother's Stamps? Gold Bond?

Hark! I remember Gunn Bros!

Do you remember post 26 in this thread? Huh?




Curious...

Does anyone remember Gunn Brother's Stamps? Gold Bond?

Hark! I remember Gunn Bros!

Do you remember post 26 in this thread? Huh?
Dude, I didn't see your post. Kudos!

Lord, if I had a nickle for each Green Stamp I moistened and placed in those friggin S & H Books!!!

Dennis,
Ah but the treasures! Somewhere in the past, probably early 50's, our mother told us that we could redeem any stamp book(s) that we filled. Almost made the glue taste good in anticipation. We did S&H Green stamps, TV stamps which I believe were from Humpty Dumpty grocery stores, and Gold Bond, not sure where we got those, probably at the service (gas) station. It was almost like the "Tetris" game, tearing off the correct stamps to fit the open space.
C. T.
Lord, if I had a nickle for each Green Stamp I moistened and placed in those friggin S & H Books!!!

... and Gold Bond, not sure where we got those, probably at the service (gas)
station.
I believe Gold Bond came from Red Bud or IGA. Safeway had Gunn
Bros.

Dennis,
Ah but the treasures! Somewhere in the past, probably early 50's, our mother told us that we could redeem any stamp book(s) that we filled. Almost made the glue taste good in anticipation. We did S&H Green stamps, TV stamps which I believe were from Humpty Dumpty grocery stores, and Gold Bond, not sure where we got those, probably at the service (gas) station. It was almost like the "Tetris" game, tearing off the correct stamps to fit the open space.
C. T.

Humpty Dumpty was definitely Top Value (TV). I still have some inside an old Humpty paper bag full of old birthday cards we found in mom's attic when she passed.

The things we learn! I was looking up Gold Bond stamps because I remember those as well. It turns out the Carlson Hotel chain started as Gold Bond Stamps!

"Carlson was founded in 1938 as the Gold Bond Stamp Company by Curt Carlson, who used a $55 loan to start his venture. Founded during the Great Depression, Mr. Carlson used "Gold Bond Stamps", a consumer loyalty program based on trading stamps, to provide consumer incentive for grocery stores."
Carlson Companies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Companies)

The things we learn! I was looking up Gold Bond stamps because I remember those as well. It turns out the Carlson Hotel chain started as Gold Bond Stamps!

"Carlson was founded in 1938 as the Gold Bond Stamp Company by Curt Carlson, who used a $55 loan to start his venture. Founded during the Great Depression, Mr. Carlson used "Gold Bond Stamps", a consumer loyalty program based on trading stamps, to provide consumer incentive for grocery stores."
Carlson Companies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Companies)

From the Article:
By the early 1980s, Curt Carlson had acquired over 50 diverse businesses, most of them small and some not running profitably. Under the administration of president Edwin C. "Skip" Gage, husband of Curt's younger daughter, the majority of those small enterprises were sold. The company then purchased the MacDonald Plaid Stamp business (a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange) and merged it with the Gold Bond Stamp business to become the largest trading stamp company in the world.

As all of this took place from the center of the web--in Minnesota--doesn't this sound like a great theme for the next Coen Bros. Movie?
Instead of Fargo II or Son of Fargo, they could call it, simply, "Minnetonka".
(heck . . . maybe they could persuade The Artists Formerly Known as Prince--and then known as Prince again--to come out of retirement to compose the soundtrack.)

I believe Gold Bond came from Red Bud or IGA. Safeway had Gunn
Bros.

Why do I have the feeling that "Gunn Bros." stamps would, in today's world, run into intense objectionism?