The use of trading stamps followed the spread of service stations and grocery stores chains across America in the early decades of the last century. After the Second World War supermarkets began issuing trading stamps as a customer incentives and before 1960 at least 250,000 retailer issued trading stamps. Trading stamp companies had over a thousand retail centers where consumers could redeem their stamps for cool stuff like bicycles and can openers. The Gold Bond Gift Store pictured above graced the corner of 11th and Nicollet for many years. The three dimensional Sandy Super Saver on the marquee has been attributed to Robbinsdale sculptor, Bob Johnson. These days the corner is occupied by Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels. In the early 1960s, the S&H Green Stamps company claimed it printed more stamps annually than the post office. In 1968 over $900 million in stamps were sold in the United States. The trading stamps started to go the way of the horse and buggy in the early 70’s. Service stations gave up on them when the the energy crisis hit and inflation drove supermarkets like Red Owl out of the stamp business. The last trading stamp company in the United States, Eagle Stamps, closed in 2008.
