Non-food shops, mid 20th century

Green Shield stamps, the first loyalty stamps in Britain

The Green Shield stamp scheme was an innovation that was exciting and unique in the late 1950s and into the 1970s. I don't believe that we had ever seen anything like it before in the UK. It was aimed at increasing custom at participating sales outlets.

Sample of Green Shield stamps

As far as I know, Green Shield stamps were first loyalty stamps in the UK, although they were not the first loyalty scheme. That was the Co-op's dividend scheme - see pages on dividend in the early 20th Century and in the 1940s.

What Green Shield stamps were and how the scheme worked

Green Shield stamps were stamps given away by retailers nationally. The number of stamps depended on the how much we spent. We stuck them into a free book printed with outlines sowing where to stick the stamps. This made them less likely to lose and easy to count. When a book was full it could be exchanged for a new one at any participating retail outlet. Gifts could be chosen from a catalogue along with the price in stamps of each item. Green Shield stamps could not be exchanged for money.

Green Shield stamp book, photographed in Beaulieu Motor Museum

Posters in a window of a Tesco shop, showing that it belonged to the Green Shield stamp scheme. Screenshot from an old film

In fact the value of each stamp was minimal, but there was something rather enticing about collecting them, sticking them into their book and watching the collection grow. So I suppose that we did tend to go to retailers who were in the scheme rather than those who were not. In this respect the scheme was similar to the dividend paid out to Co-op customers.

The headquarters of the Green Shield stamp scheme

As it happened, the scheme was organised from a tall newly built building in Edgware, where I grew up. The building was known as the Green Shield Tower.

The beginning and end of Green Shield stamps

The Green Shield stamp scheme was relatively shortlived. It was introduced into the UK in 1958 by Richard Tompkins, but in 1973 he started rebranding it as Argos. My recollection is that the scheme started petering out sometime after that.

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