Do you remember S & H Green Stamps? How about Top Value Stamps? Or Gold Bond Stamps? The S & H Green Stamps stick in my mind. I have a few in a scrapbook somewhere. I collected them religiously. That means faithfully, constantly, conscientiously and with devotion. They had a sucker in tow. That sucker was me. If there was a special with extra green stamps I was there. Hopefully, it was for something I really needed, not just to fill out a book of stamps.

Trading stamps have been around for a long, long time. There might still be some in use even today. But I am over the craze. A store won't buy my loyalty with trading stamps anymore. I have finally wised up, I think. Low prices on items I need does the trick today, but let's talk about trading stamps.

I doubt that the younger generation knows what they are. My daughter, Anne, said she had never heard of them. Have they been out of style that long? Am I that old? I guess so.

From what I have read, trading stamps started out as a way to reward loyal customers who paid cash, as opposed to charging their groceries. That was before my time. I first learned of them in the fifties. Money was tight in our house. This appeared to be another way for me to save and I jumped on the bandwagon with both feet, instantly hooked. They found another schnook in me!

To further reel me in, there would be trading stamp catalogs on the counter as I paid for my groceries. My, oh my, oh my! Look at that! For only four books I could have a new set of dishes. On other pages would be all sorts of luxuries, such as golf clubs (I wasn't interested in those) or one of those new transistor radios everyone was talking about. Now, I would like one of those. Let's see how many books of trading stamps I would need to redeem a radio? It would take twelve books.

Oh well, that was an impossible goal. There were too many other things in the catalog that only took a book or two to redeem. As I remember it, I seldom accumulated over two books of trading stamps until they burned a hole in my catalog. Sometimes I would beg trading stamps from relatives to finish out a book. As you could see, I was hooked.

Wasn't that the idea? Then they suddenly disappeared. That is why I have an unfilled book of trading stamps left from the day. The grocery stores started spending more money advertising lower prices rather than issuing stamps. They were replaced by coupons, rewards programs offered by credit card companies and other loyalty programs such as Food City's Preferred Customer card.

Those “Preferred Customer” cards are sneaky. My use of them tells the retailer my shopping preferences. I am rewarded for that by frequent sales, I guess. But I miss my S & H Green Trading Stamps. There were so many things in that catalog I really wanted but couldn't afford. Yup. I was a sucker all right. I wonder what will be the next marketing ploy that I'll fall for? Time will tell.