Green Shield Stamps

Infobox Defunct company
company_name = Green Shield Trading Stamp Company
company_
slogan =
company_type =
fate = ceased trading
Predecessor =
successor =
foundation = 1958
defunct = 1991
location = United Kingdom
industry = Trading stamps
products =
key_people = Richard Tompkins,
Founding chairman and managing director
num_employees =
parent =
subsid =

Green Shield Stamps were a sales promotion or incentive loyalty scheme using trading stamps, designed and deployed in the United Kingdom and Ireland to encourage or reward shopping, by being able to buy "free" gifts. Green Shield Trading Stamp Company was founded in 1958 by entrepreneur Richard Tompkins, and the stamps were withdrawn in 1991.

Founder

Granville Richard Francis Tompkins (15 May 1918–6 December 1992) was a print, advertising and retail entrepreneur, best known for founding the Green Shield Stamps company, and the Argos chain of catalogue stores. Cite web
url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51347
title=Tompkins, (Granville) Richard Francis (1918–1992)
year=2004
accessdate=2008-06-19
publisher=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
author=Richard Davenport-Hines] Cite web
url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/7403667
title=TOMPKINS, (Granville) Richard (Francis)
publisher=Who Was Who 1897-2007, CredoReference
accessdate=2008-09-16
year=2008]

Richard Tompkins was born in Islington, London, and worked as an engineering draughtsman during the Second World War, before founding his first printing business in 1945.

On holiday in Chicago in the 1950s, Tomkins witnessed the success of S&H Green Stamps, and founded Green Shield Stamp Trading Company in the United Kingdom

In 1973, he adapted the format of his Green Shield catalogue shops, used for redeeming trading stamp books, and founded Argos, a catalogue store chain that took cash. Though independent, Argos operations were closely linked to Green Shield Stamps, and Argos was sold in 1979 to BAT Industries for £35 million.Tomkins died of cancer in 1992 in Westminster, a year after the stamps were withdrawn, and the same year he was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

History

Trading stamps first became popular in the United States. Sperry & Hutchinson began offering stamps to United States retailers in 1896. They bought stamps from S&H and gave them as bonuses with every purchase based on the amount purchased. The stamps were given away at filling stations, corner shops and supermarkets. When the customer had collected sufficient stamps in collectors' books, the shopper claimed merchandise from a catalogue or S&H Green Stamps shop.

Tompkins purchased the name "Green Shield" from a luggage manufacturer and founded Green Shield Trading Stamp Co in 1958, along similar lines to S&H Green Stamps. They were popular during the 1960s and 1970s. Competitive trading stamp schemes included Pink Stamps (a UK operation of S&H Green Stamps), British consumer co-operatives' dividend stamps, Blue Chip and the short-lived UK operation of King Korn.

Tesco founder Jack Cohen was an advocate of stamps; he signed up in 1963, shortly after his competitor Fine Fare adopted S&H Pink Stamps, and Tesco became one of the company’s largest clients. But Cohen was a fan of "pile it high and sell it cheap", and in the mid-1970s faced cost problems associated with not integrating its stores. In 1977 Tesco launched "Operation Checkout", price-cutting aimed at countering the new discounters such as Kwik Save. A decision was to abandon Green Shield stamps, saving £20m a year and helping to finance price reductions. [http://cep.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/24-05-04%20-%20Background%20paper%20by%20Geoffrey%20Owen.pdf]

In light of a price war, and higher prices where the stamps were sold, consumers prices were rising to cover costs - and as inflation was high, the value of the stamps was going down. As sales slowed and other retailers abandoned the scheme, Green Shield Stamp catalogue shops were rebranded Argos in July 1973. The company suspended sale of stamps in 1983, then had a short revival in 1987 involving 2,500 shops, finally ceasing in 1991.

The Genesis song "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" from their 1973 album "Selling England by the Pound" refers to “Knights of the Green Shield”.

Green Shield Stamp "syndrome"

Green Shield Stamps were successful because so many never cashed them. Sticking stamps in books was time-consuming. This became known as "Green Shield Stamp syndrome".Fact|date=November 2007

References

External links

* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5134 ‘Tompkins, (Granville) Richard Francis (1918–1992)’] , Richard Davenport-Hines, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
* [http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/pop/greenshieldstamps.htm Green Shield Stamps at Nostaligia Central]
* [http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_britain/green_shield_stamps/Green_Shield_Stamps.html Green Shield Stamps at RetroWow]
* [http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0082/S.0082.197507150003.html 1975 debate in the Irish Parliament re monopolistic practices]
* [http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1760122005 Scotsman article on the "House of Cards"]