I had a great deal of experience with Sperry & Hutchinson (S&H) green stamps in the mid to late 50s. But I do
not know anything about the
greenpoints that may have replaced them. I've seen Scotch and Gold Bond stamps in years past but never saved any or learned anything about them. But as for the S&H Green Stamps, we gave them in the service station, and a few things I remember:
1) we bought 10 "books" at a time for $14 a book (the books we tore them out of to dispense would fill more than 3 of the books you pasted them into).
2) the supermarket across the street also gave green stamps, but paid more for his because he bought smaller quantities, although we occasionally sold him a book of ours at our cost.
3) the supermarket owner decided to quit giving green stamps. He said he had done some calculations and figured with the profit margin on groceries that he could quit giving green stamps and lose half his business and break even.
4) after a couple of months he started giving green stamps again because he lost three-fourths of his business when he quit.
5) I checked several times about buying some item; one I remember was a new typewriter, and each time I found that I could just go to a store and buy the product cheaper than the green stamps would cost, even at our cost.
6) Sperry & Hutchinson had a great deal. They were selling all their products at full retail price, even if every stamp was redeemed,
and getting their money in advance. And of course stamps that were not redeemed just boosted their profits even more.
7) We learned to never underestimate the importance of those stamps to many women. Example: Mobil tires were good, but too expensive. We could not, and didn't even try to, compete with other tire dealers. However, if anyone wanted Mobil tires, we'd show them our catalogs, and sell them the tires for $1 over our cost, plus mounting and balancing. But of course we always told customers, at that price, we cannot give you green stamps. Sure enough, the day came when a regular customer wanted a full set of tires, and Dad explained it all to him, he said forget the green stamps, and we sold him the tires. Later that evening, here comes his wife with the receipt and wanted her green stamps. Dad explained why he had not given her husband the green stamps. Then he showed her our cost and the full retail price and told her if he'd charged her husband the full price he could have given double green stamps, but not selling the tires for a dollar over our cost. You know what happened
. Yep, she shelled out the money to make up the difference and pay full retail price for those tires. Dad gave her
triple green stamps, we made more money, and she left just happy as a lark.
