Green Shield Stamps

Does anyone else remember the era of 'Green Shield Stamps'??

'Green Shield Stamps' were the first 'loyalty' scheme that I can remember. They were given out when petrol was bought. Haven't a clue what petrol station issued them, but 'everyone'?, and I mean EVERYONE collected 'green shield stamps'.

Being very young at the time, I don't actually remember a great deal about them. - Apart from the fact that whenever we bought petrol we had to buy it from somewhere that gave -'green shield stamps'.

We had a book that we used to stick the 'green shield stamps' into. And I think you could then exchange the books of stamps for various items. I seem to remember there was a catalogue that you could choose items from. I think it had lots of stuff in it.

All I ever remember us getting from our 'green shield stamps' was glasses, like the ones in this blip.

When my Dad died in 2002 and we cleared out his house he had hundreds of glasses - all very similar to the ones in this blip. Well there's a limit to what one can do with hundreds of glasses that size? So most of them ended up in charity shops or at a car boot sale.

Collecting 'Green Shield Stamps' was like an obsession. Whenever we met my Grandparents or Aunt & Uncle, a discussion would take place as to who had the most 'green shield stamps'?? Thinking about it - when my Gran died and we cleared out her house, she had quite a lot of impractical sized glasses - I bet they'd also come from 'green shield stamps'.

I can't remember where we went to exchange our 'green shield stamps' into goods. Obviously it was in the days before the internet so I can only assume that the garages that gave out these 'green shield stamps' also stocked all the items that you could exchange them for.

I can't actually remember when the 'green shield stamp' obsession began and ended but I think it was around the late 1960's/early 1970's. In today's world of loyalty schemes, marketing ploys & reward systems; sticking a few stamps into a booklet seems a bit of an effort.

But ............................. everything leads back to the same old story. Years ago if you wanted something you saved up for it. If you wanted something that was in the 'green shield stamp' catalogue then you had to save up your stamps before you could get it.
And, maybe my parents, grandparents, etc, only ended up with a few (OK lots) of impractical sized glasses - but so what?

They'd saved up their 'green shield stamps', exchanged them for what they wanted, and that had actually saved them money - because they never had to buy another glass again.
They probably could have done with some 'bigger' or 'more practical' glasses but these one's were 'free' so they just made do!

GREEN SHIELD STAMPS - fab!