For decades, millions of Americans participated in a bizarre shopping ritual that's nearly forgotten today. Every time you bought groceries, filled up your gas tank, or shopped at participating stores, you received sheets of small adhesive stamps.

You'd take them home, lick them, and carefully paste them into booklets. Collect enough booklets and you could redeem them at special redemption centers for anything from kitchen appliances to lawn furniture to bicycles. This was the trading stamp craze, and it was absolutely massive.

S&H Green Stamps were the king, but competitors like Plaid Stamps, Blue Chip Stamps, and Top Value Stamps battled for dominance. At their peak in the 1960s, the Sperry and Hutchinson Company printed three times more stamps than the US Postal Service printed postage stamps. Families kept their stamp books like treasure. Kids fought over who got to lick and stick. Redemption catalogs were pored over like wish books. Shopping decisions were made entirely based on which stores gave stamps.

Join us as we explore this strange chapter of American consumer culture, from trading stamps' origins in the 1890s to their explosive mid-century popularity to their sudden collapse in the 1980s. We'll visit the massive redemption centers that dotted America, uncover why grocery stores finally rebelled, and reveal what killed the stamp craze forever. It was loyalty rewards before credit card points, gamification before apps, and a national obsession that's now completely extinct.

Keywords: S&H Green Stamps, trading stamps, Plaid Stamps, vintage shopping, Green Stamps redemption, stamp collecting, 1960s shopping, loyalty stamps, Blue Chip Stamps, Sperry and Hutchinson, trading stamp catalogs, retro consumer culture, stamp books, American shopping history, vintage rewards programs