The Return of S&H

Do you remember green stamps? People used to collect them to get free gifts. My mother used to when I was young. The stamps were around still when I became an adult but soon faded. According to yesterday's Palm Beach Post they are making a comeback.

Instead of Green stamps there are greenpoints. Not many retailers are doing this yet, but some are. Macy's, Barnes and Noble to name too. But these are only online and no Florida retailer is in this program.

S&H Solutions just relocated their Headquarters to Palm Beach County and has future plans to expand their program. I would think there would be a market for these greenpoints. Customers would see the benefit of being loyal to certain retailers.

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By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The S&H Green Stamp once was an everyday feature of American life, as shoppers pasted countless numbers of the trading stamps into booklets, waiting for a day of redemption.

The stamps, first marketed by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson back in 1896, peaked in the 1960s, when an estimated 80 percent of households across the country were collecting Green Stamps and trading them in for loot such as toasters, watches and baby walkers at around 800 redemption centers.

The stamps are long gone, but the concept lives. The new version, launched in 2000, is S&H Greenpoints, tracked electronically and redeemed online without any licking of stamps.

The company behind it, now known as S&H Solutions, relocated in May to Delray Beach from Salem, Mass. It celebrates the grand opening of its corporate headquarters at 1625 S. Congress Ave. with a ceremony this afternoon.

"The brand has top-of-mind recall, above 75 percent," said Ron Pedersen, chief executive officer and president of S&H Solutions. "It reminds Americans of a lot of virtuous things — quality,
reliability."

Close to 10 million households are participating in the Greenpoints program, Pedersen said.
Consumers can sign up online and obtain points through online shopping with Macy's, Barnes & Noble and other retailers who participate in the program. A Rival Steam & Dry Iron, for example, is 7,900 points.

S&H also has seven grocery retailers with more than 400 stores where more than half a million cards are scanned each day, and the Greenpoints obtained can be used to buy groceries, said Al Smith, S&H's vice president of sales.

There are no participating in-store retailers in Florida, although the company is pursuing that.