I remember the green stamps, and the gold bond stamps, and some red ones, that I dont recall the name. All were put in my mothers big green depression glass pitcher on the top shelf of the cabinet (I have the pitcher now, but its empty). The ration stamps for the grocery store were also in that pitcher. When I first got married, we grocery shopped at a store where we got gold bond stamps, and I got several things with them. Most memorable thing was my Cosco step stool.. I loved it. No more dragging chairs across the kitchen to be able to get stuff from the top shelf. A few years ago, I found a reproduction cosco stool, and bought one, so I still use a Cosco stool, to get in my top cabinets.

I remember those Green Stamps....I worked in an Eisner grocery store that gave them away. I was office manager and we had to account for those darn things on Monday morning for the past week. What a night mare that report was.

when DH and I were first married we accumulated some finished books and our first purchase was a picnic basket...still have it....still use it...still in perfect shape 53 yrs later.

Let’s go back a little farther and and I remember the “silent butler”, my grandmother used one. Late 30s/early 40s...they were Southern Illinois farmers. She always had a table cloth on.....after meals she would brush off crumbs with with her tray and brush. She then left sugar, salt n pepper, jellies in the center of table and covered them with a pretty embroidered cloth.

I remember those visits to their home, how they lived with no electricity, no modern plumbing. Going into town in a horse drawn wagon for groceries with two cars in sheds. Yes two cars they had. I could go on and on about those memories. What a different world those times were.

What a nostalgia trip this has been this Sunday morning.

I still have a bunch of green stamps someplace. I remember getting my youngest sister's wedding gift with green stamps.......a lamp. In retrospect, that was a strange gift, but probably could not afford being choosy. It probably did not go well with her "decor".

We shopped at A&P, and they had Plaid Stamps, but lots of others had S&H Green Stamps, and I remember lots of commercials for them on the black and white TV. Also remember milk delivery in glass bottles and the coal truck, the ice man at our cabin rental in NH, mom washing clothes on a wash board in the set tub, then hand ringing them and hanging them on the clothes line.

We collected both Green Stamps and Gold Stamps. I remember pasting them into the books. My parents folding card table and chairs where one of the things we "purchased" with the stamps.

I remember green stamps well. We were poor when first married, just out of college with me staying home with a baby and husband making less than $5000 a year(Yeah, I know with a college degree from Penn State). I collected and pasted these in and then took the bus to the store and bought a "goodie" for my self...a decorative item for the house. Such simple times.

Still have my bread warmer I got with Green Stamps.

Yes, I remember pasting them in the little books for my mom....Blue Chip stamps too. I have vague memories of the catalogs or stores and cant remember anything Mom got with them but I know she did. Lots of trips to the Sears catalog pick up store....right next door to the Sees candy shop!

yes, I was right about the DUZ

Just to make all of you jealous this area has milk and other foodstuff delivery. Not that useful for a single person household but still there. They keep changing what they deliver. shattomilk.com/

Weird. Last month while doing some cleaning at my recently deceased Mom's house, I found about 8 full books. I remember them well. My sister took them, they reminded us so our lovely Mom.

I don't think we had many green stamps in our area, or I'm sure we would have saved/used them. My mother was a smoker though and used to save Raleigh "coupons" that came on the back of the cigarette packages. I have no memory of how they were redeemed or for what. Too bad you couldn't get a new set of lungs with them. My mom died of copd :-(

I still have the sewing machine table I got with my books of stamps and yes I collected the towels in Breeze and the dinnerware in Duz. I sold my big set of dishes from Duz and when the fellow was taking them away, he dropped the box and I think most all of them were broken. Sad.

Sue

maifleur01, I clicked on your link to the Dairy. I like a company with a sense of humor: "No hormones. No factory farms. No bull. Ok, a few bulls. We hope you’ll understand."

I remember Mom having booklets of Green Stamps when I was very little. Or was it my grandparents? Either way, I don't remember ever seeing a catalog to redeem them. Hey, why didn't I get a vote! -- just kidding of course.

Oh, yes, my mother saved both green stamps and yellow stamps (Top Value); also she saved the coupons off of Betty Crocker boxes. I believe that she used those to get a set of flatware and a set of dishes for my sister when she married.

I not only remember the towels, dishes and glasses that came in laundry detergent, I still have and use a set of those Duz "Swedish Modern" glasses. I love the weight and feel of them, they fit my hand perfectly, not oversized, not too heavy. The juice glasses especially are the perfect size. I've wondered why no one has copied the pattern, perhaps in a different color; although probably would never get the same quality. Someone write to Martha Stewart!

Oh yes. I have a pair of end tables still knocking around down in the basement that we got from Green Stamps. I think my mom gave me some books full of Green Stamps when I got married and I used them to get the tables.

I remember the books and watching my mother as she’d lick the stamps and place them ever so carefully on the pages. I don’t recall the magazines as much as I do the Sear’s catalogs, (the bedding pictures were always so fabulous, especially the canopy’s), but I do remember going to the Stamp store to look. I think she may have gotten her hair dryer with the bonnet there.

aok, the iron was a mangle. My mother ironed everything on that mangle iron, including sheets, towels, underwear, etc. She thought it was wonderful--I guess after growing up on a farm with no electricity, and heating the old irons on the wood stove, the mangle was a godsend to her. She also had a scrub board and lye soap...we never had stains on our clothes!

Oh yes! Bought my first matched Atlantic luggage with them, later bought a changing table and high chair when I had my first baby. My mother would give me hers to help. Lived in St Louis where we had Eagle stamps - they were good for either purchases at Famous Barr, or for a bit less, as cash. Saved those things like crazy! When I redid my kitchen last year, I found a small mason jar with some S&H and Eagle stamps in it - had to keep it - it's somewhere in the basement.

We saved Green Stamps but it seems Blue Chip stamps were more popular in our area. One of the things I remember redeeming them for was a little phone table/bench when I got my own phone in my room.

I saved the Betty Crocker coupons. A set of Oneida Stainless I still use today came via Betty Crocker coupons.

We also saved green stamps, I still have an old catalog as my father modeled in it. It really wasn't what he did for a living but also was a model for Chris Craft Boats and some bill boards. Can't remember what we purchased with the stamps, but I can picture a women counting the pages with a rubber tip on her finger and ripping of the front and back covers !

Ditto for where I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, watchme. Blue Chip Stamps was a newer company that seemed to be viewed as being "more cool" than the green stamp company in So Cal. Over time, Blue seemed to push out green and take over accounts at more and more retailers. Giving stamps cost the stores and gas stations a lot of money. They were the ones ultimately bearing the cost for the trinkets that could be obtained, by having to pay the stamp companies a lot of money for the stamps they gave out. That's how the stamp companies made money - buying the goods wholesale and charging the equivalent of retail to the stores for the redemption value of the stamps. Stores raised prices to cover the cost.

At one point, I remember a stamp war when some chains started offering 2X and 3X stamps. Then, as the pendulum swings both ways, one store (it may have been Lucky's) decided to go in the other direction - no stamps and much lower prices. Others followed suit and the same happened at gas stations. That seemed to start the beginning of the end for the stamp business in the area, they became less and less commonly given out until it stopped completely.

I got a baby stroller with green stamps. It probably wouldn't pass today's safety standards. However I did use it for three boys.

I still have a decanter that has an etched design of galloping horses that I got with green stamps and I also got a very pretty set of glasses that looked like stained glass...but my dishwasher that I had at the time, ruined them.

Remember the green glassware that came with gas purchases? This thread is truly a blast from the past. I still have an aluminum kettle that my MIL got me with Betty Crocker coupons.

We had Green Stamps and Blue Chip Stamps. When my parents died, I kept several filled Green Stamp books from Mother's stash and bought myself Revereware pots and pans as I was setting up my first apartment and a year later bought more as I was getting married. I still use those pots and pans.

My S&H stamp story is a little different. Once I was chatting with a group of women. There were mostly seniors in the group, plus a few younger gals. We Seniors were talking about 'green stamps' -- just as we have been doing here in this thread.

One of the younger women suddenly looked as though a light had gone in in her mind. She was remembering a hot summer when she was a child, when she and her brothers were made to sit around the kitchen table for days, sticking thousands of green stamps into hundreds of booklets for her uncle.

When she explained that her uncle was a small time hoodlum, it all became clear. The stamps were stolen.

I remember S&H green stamps. My family rarely collected enough of those to purchase anything of value, but I saw something else. It was the yacht belonging to the owner of S&H Green Stamps. My father-in-law pointed it out to me, It was moored at Prescott, WI in the Mississippi river for a short time.

Eagle stamps were SO much better than S&H Green stamps as one could use them to purchase anything sold at Famous Barr (and I'm sure at other May Co dept stores in many other cities). One could get cash back for them, but the better value was to use them for in-store purchases. Tuesday, was always Double Eagle Stamp Day, so one would plan purchases for that day to get still further value. Since Famous Barr also sold appliances, a new refrigerator or stove could mean a LOT of Eagle stamps! Some gas stations gave them, also.

I think this all stopped sometime in the mid-80's - we moved from St Louis in 1981 and they were "alive and well" then.

Pasting all those stamps was a big chore - one got a wet sponge, spread it all out, and just went for it.

Famous Barr was a lovely dept store. I worked there in the mid-60's in their Executive Training Program and became an Assistant Buyer in the Misses Budget Dress Dept. We were give a very generous employee discount - used it to buy a set of sterling flatware when I got married in 1966 - sterling was on Gorham's annual "Save by the Set" sale, and then I got 30% off of that sale price.

The president of the store was a very elegant man who was quite the Francophile. He went to France and brought back flour and a chef/baker who made the most wonderful authentic french bread that was sold in the store bakery and used in the store restaurants. They also made fabulous french cakes and pastries. Their French Onion Soup, served in their restaurants, was legendary.

Now it's just Macy's and just another dept store that is boring and crowded. Such a shame...

Anglophilia, it's hard to imagine a department store as you describe. I vaguely remember going to a restaurant in a store with my grandmother, but I don't remember much about it. Stores sure have come a long way .. down.

I remember when it was such a treat to go to Lord & Taylor's to eat at the Bird Cage restaurant...as young teens, we felt sooo fancy!

Of course, back then WT Grant was in the mall and my GF worked at the Whirly Q luncheonette...not quite the same panache.

Lord & Taylor? How about Robert Hall for this guy!

My mother collected them but somewhat erratically. I think one time we had enough to get an electric blanket. In a story by Flannery o Connor there is a reference to them. My students did not know what they were.

I don't remember those stamps but I did collect kool aid points lol :D

Sakowitz in Houston, a very upscale department store, had a fancy restaurant , on the top floor. It was out of my league, but my best friend in high school's parents were millionaires, and she used to borrow her mom's charge card, and we would go there sometimes.

There was a lunch counter in Kresge Department store in Galveston and my mom and I used to go there. I am not sure how it was supposed to be pronounced but she called it "Kresses".

When I was a kid, all of the pharmacies had a lunch counter too....and had sandwiches like chicken salad and a soda fountain where you could get all kinds of concoctions from ice cream sodas and sundaes to malts, or just a coke.

There is a pharmacy with a lunch counter that is still active in Sitka, Alaska.

Clever merchandising is behind the creation of store restaurants. In Chicago, Marshall Field and his vice-president Harry Selfridge saw the value of providing 'an experience' to shoppers. Every merchant wants his customers to be drawn to a store, and to linger there.

We enjoyed watching "Mr. Selfridge" as a means of returning to the Marshall Field's we knew as children. (Selfridge left Field to create his own store in London, realizing he could never rise in management above Field's many sons.)

Emile Zola's "The Paradise" showed an earlier sales genius. The proprietor created a social atmosphere for ladies of leisure. He introduced them to profitable luxuries -- along with a place to display the finery they bought from him.

As I remember, Field's State Street store had seven restaurants, from a self-serve cafeteria to several upscale rooms, the pinnacle being the several stories tall Walnut Room -- home to 'the great tree' at Christmas.

(Even IKEA offers a restaurant. How can you keep shopping on an empty stomach?)

Hess's in Allentown had a great restaurant known far and wide. We'd go there when we visited my husband's aunt.

Both our five and dime stores had lunch counters and my father who was the manager of the telephone company four doors away, had his morning coffee there. We kids used to get cokes there.The good old days.

I remember the green stamps. and also the towels in the detergent boxes. I also remember collecting betty crocker points that were on the boxes.

Going to a department store in Downtown (Cincinnati, in my case) was an event! One that required dressing nicely and if we were lucky, would include a stop in the store café or restaurant. As a smaller child I was always fascinated by the escalators, and the giant scale that we could use for free, also.

Almost every drugstore then included a soda fountain where my beloved chocolate sodas could be had, or a Coke flavored with lemon or cherry syrup. I remember my parents giving us Coke syrup, obtained from the soda fountain, to treat upset stomachs or stomach "flu". I think that the old drugstore, which dated back to the early 1900s if not before, near my dad's office is still in business, but I haven't been there in decades -- wonder if they still have the soda fountain?

Department store restaurants were usually outstanding - wonderful food, good service. My father ate lunch at the "Men's Grill" at Scruggs, Vandervoot & Barney nearly every single day. Can one imagine a store allowing a "Men's Grill" today? Ha! It was perfect as the men didn't want a bunch of chit chatting ladies around, and wanted their food quickly so they could get back to work. The "ladies who lunched" enjoyed the tea room.

My children learned about "fine dining" at the old Stix, Baer & Fuller tea room at Westroads shopping center in St Louis. When my parents came to town to visit, we always went to lunch there. It was white linen cloths and really very nice. They always seated us where the waitresses were the quickest, and these same waitresses whisked that basket of crackers off the table before the children saw them - no point paying for lunch if they've already filled up on crackers. Young children are far better at lunch than dinner, so it was a perfect place to learn ones dining out manners. My children adored going there - such a treat!

Yes, I remember going to Sakowitz tea room during a visit to Houston. And one of my all time favorite sandwiches was served at Marshall Field's - it was called a "Field's Special" and consisted of iceberg lettuce, eggs, ham, swiss cheese, turkey and thousand island dressing. It was quite a meal and it was fabulous. And one cannot forget the wonderful food at Neiman Marcus restaurants.

Shopping was an "experience" in those days. It was elegant, made one feel special, and was always a little bit glamorous. Large fitting rooms, alteration ladies, salesladies who brought things to the room - all gone with the wind. No wonder no one wants to do anything but shop online today! The glamour is gone even in outrageously expensive stores.

We lived within walking distance of Famous Barr's Clayton store in St Louis. When my daughter was 8, she and her best friend up the street, would get all dressed up, carrying their small Bermuda bags, and walk to Famous Barr and have French Onion Soup in the small bistro. They felt VERY grown up and elegant. She remembers that so well, and was thrilled when a Panera opened a few blocks from her house, so her boys would have a similar experience. They went there often with friends - even had "their booth". It was pretty cute. Children need more such opportunities today.

My poor Grandmother - the epitome of Victorian ladylike behavior - used to try to teach me and my sister correct table manners. There was one department store downtown called Maas Brothers. Linen napkins, water glasses, different sized plates and flatware all over the place. She would try to teach us all the rules, all the different flatware, etc. Of course we respected her and tried to act right but it was a lost cause, I'm afraid. I guess when my Dad grew up and got out of her eyesight he was determined not to live like that and we weren't taught anything more than grab and snatch while you can or you might not get any. I feel sorry for her now. LOL!!

Grab and Snatch - great game for a take-out deli!

Before she married, my late mother was personal secretary to the VP of Personnel at The Shepard Co. department store in Providence, RI. With her prompting, he created a company newsletter to promote an in-store employee 'family. She had a lot of ideas about improving the customer's experience. She loved her work, and she loved seeing innovations that came along with department stores in her lifetime. (She'd be sad to see the diminished state of them today!)

lily316, what was the name of the restaurant in Hess's? My parents were from Bethlehem, so they probably ate there too.

I also remember drugstore diners and soda fountains. There usually was a phone booth somewhere in the back of the drugstore with a wooden seat and glass door you could close for privacy.

I remember my Mom getting two brass carved plates for the wall above the mantle and a bed warmer to hang next to the fireplace with the stamps. I still have them in the attic.

Hess's restaurant was called the Patio. My mother used to take me there. I remember the Strawberry pie and fashion shows. What a treat!

My uncle had become a chef in Michigan after getting out of the Tule Lake relocation camp. He became quite well-known and Amana hired him early on to work on commercial sales in the early '60's. He sold the highly-insulated, low-heat ovens that allowed restaurants to cook a prime rib roast and hold it hours on end without overcooking.

In 1967 Raytheon subsidiary Amana began selling the new countertop version of that most high-tech of kitchen devices - the microwave! It was patented under the name Radarange and cost $495, a tidy sum of $$$ in those days (enough to buy a full-size range, in fact).

Since my mom was the only other member of his family who actually loved to cook, when my uncle transferred over to start selling the new countertop model Radarange, he brought one over to our home and demonstrated it.

This must have been right when it first came out, since I was living with her June '67 through June '68 for my senior yr in HS.

Mom couldn't afford it, but she loved the demo. It's been so long I don't remember most of the details now, but I was pretty impressed as well.

It was, of course, quite a bit bigger outside but smaller inside than today's model's. And HEAVY - Raytheon was a military contractor and they built to industrial standards, LOL.

No turntables in those days, either. You had to cook and then halfway through, pause the MW and turn the plate/dish around! Remember that?