The olden days - grocery store edition

[susandennis]

machupicchu  reminded me, once again, of times gone by when he was astounded to hear me describe grocery store giveaways. I honestly don't think he even really believed me.

Grocery store rewards cards are the children and grandchildren of plates and forks and stamps. There were not a lot of big chains. The Piggly Wiggly and the Food Marts of the day were one, maybe two stores or a handful in the region. They rewarded customers with dishes and silverware.

They had whole sets of dishes and silverware laid out and labeled with miraculously low prices plus you could only buy them as rewards. If you bought $x of groceries then you could buy a plate or a cup at that low low price. If you shopped there every week for a year you could get the whole set. It was what every housewife wanted according to the sign and the ads.

But the big chains - the A&Ps and Winn Dixies gave away S&H Green Stamps. You paid your money and then the cashier got your change from the drawer, your receipt from one machine and your green stamps from another and off you went.

At our house they were obsessively collected and turned into a paying chore. We had chores (make your bed, clean your room) and we had paying chores (sweep the porch, glue in green stamps). I hated the green stamps even for money. They tasted horrible (and I never thought to do the sponge deal). Plus my Mom was anal about their having to be placed in the book perfectly.

"Do you want those people at the green stamp store to know we are not smart enough to follow the lines??"

Yes, there was a green stamp store. You paid in books of green stamps. We bought our blender there.

I'm sure the internet is full of proof that all this happened. I plugged "S&H Green Stamps" into Google images and found tons of images.

Oh and one brand of detergent came with a towel in the box! A bath towel! My sister pulled it out in the middle of the kitchen one time and got in big trouble for getting detergent all over the floor.

I love that I was there and saw it all and I love that I am not now.