Here’s the thing about S&H Green Stamps. I loved collecting them when I was a kid. I had visions of getting tons of gifts with them. So I collected and collected them. Sadly, I don’t think I ever had enough to get a single thing. I don’t know how that happened. But I was a sucker for this genius marketing program.
I can’t quite remember where we used to get them. For some reason I think we got them at the local Esso station. Yeah, that’s right. Esso. Back when you rode over a hose that triggered a bell in the gas station. And the guy would come out, pump your gas, wash your windows, and check your oil. Those were the days.
So here’s a shoutout to S&H Green Stamps, one of the first customer rewards programs.
Pam McBride
June 9, 2016Absolutely everything about this rang a big bell: the irresistible draw of the stamps, having tons of them (a tangled rope shoved into kitchen drawers, brought out on rainy weekends for pasting down), never actually buying anything with them, the Esso station, the hose you drove over. Especially the hose, literally and figuratively. I used to love being in the car as a kid and feeling the subversive thrill of the hose going under the wheels, hearing that Ting-Ting! that would bring one of the father and son trio out to exchange friendly gossip, gas and credit card carbon copies with my pretty mom. If I’d had to guess I would have said we got the stamps at the Shop Rite next to the Esso Station. Where kind, smiling Buzzy worked bringing in the carts and greeted us as though we were surprise party gifts every time we went grocery shopping.