Modern Hill Woman: S&H, Oats, and Duz

Hardly anything is free nowadays. Back when I was a kid, and even before that, companies often gave promotional items to people for shopping with them. Some businesses gave stamps that customers could collect and turn in for goods.

S&H Green Stamps was a line of trading stamps popular in the US From 1896 until the late 1980s. They were part of a rewards program by the Sperry and Hutchison Company.

Customers received stamps at supermarkets, department stores and gas stations as bonuses. The number of stamps received was based on the dollar amount of a purchase. As stamps were accumulated, they were placed in collector’s books. When filled, the books were cashed in for products from a catalog or local Green Stamps store. My mom spent many hours licking and sticking Green Stamps acquired at Ralph and Goldie Smith’s store in Grandin.

Quaker Oats, Crystal Wedding Oats, and Mother’s Oats, all owned by Quaker, had a long running promotional campaign that began in the 1920s. Oats, once used exclusively for livestock, provided healthy, economical nutrition during hard times.

Quaker needed to overcome the horse feed stigma, and came up with a brilliant marketing plan. A pretty dish was included in every box of oatmeal. Women kept buying Quaker brand oats for the free dish inside each container. Part of the appeal was the mystery of whether a cup, saucer, bowl, or glass would be buried in each box.

The dishes were high quality, supplied by several glassware and china companies, including Anchor Hocking and Homer Laughlin.

As other companies saw the success of free dishware inside product boxes, Duz Laundry Detergent started a similar program during the 1950s. Better known brands were dominating the laundry detergent market. The Duz Company focused on a single pattern of china; the golden wheat design by Homer Laughlin Company. This china pattern depicted waving stems of wheat on a white dish, with 22 karat gold edging.

Each month brought a different packaged dish carefully inserted in a box of laundry soap. People stockpiled closets full of Duz in order to collect the entire set of these dishes.

In the 1960s a box of Duz included a piece of “smoked Swedish design crystal”. I still have my set of eight goblets that my mom collected each month and passed on to me.