Machine above cash till in the 70’s

[sixtyten]

Just watching the News and had my memory jogged...
it showed a checkout till in a supermarket in 1975
about head height over the money till, I saw a grey box about 8 x 10 inches with a ring of grey and green buttons in a semi circle

i remember them from back them but never knew what they did

any ideas?.

[sixtyten]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

Got a screen shot...

[CrystalBall]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

Stamp dispenser? I seem to remember these machines in Co-op stores in the late 1970s/early 1980s for dispensing stamps which you had to save and stick in a book. A filled book was worth £1 I think and you could use them like cash in the store. Think of them as similar to today's customer loyalty cards, e.g. Nectar.

[marc]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

Stamp dispenser? I seem to remember these machines in Co-op stores in the late 1970s/early 1980s for dispensing stamps which you had to save and stick in a book. A filled book was worth £1 I think and you could use them like cash in the store. Think of them as similar to today's customer loyalty cards, e.g. Nectar.

Almost certainly a stamp dispenser. Besides the Co-op, other shops that issued Green Shield stamps used them. The Co-op stamp books were worth a £1 if you used them to purchase goods, but were worth less if you exchanged them for cash, 33 pence IIRC. Later the Co-op books were worth £5. The stamps were bigger, and you had to spend more to receive the stamp. I think the stamp was about four times the size of the original stamp.

[CrystalBall]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

That's right, and there were Co-op stamps with different values - I think single stamps, '5' stamps and bigger '40' stamps. You could stick 40 single stamps on a page, 8 '5' stamps or a single '40' stamp. My gran used to save them in an envelope and then get my sister and me to stick them in the books. One day of the week (Tuesday?) was double stamp day and the stores were busier then, especially people buying alcohol and tobacco.

[sixtyten]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

Thanks
that's what I suspected they might be

[George 1978]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

I don't remember them - this was well before my time. Did lots of shops have those machines?

However, I will go along with everyone else and assume that it was a stamp dispenser as well. I know that Argos was basically a straightforward conversion from the Green Shield Stamps format to a mainstream cash or credit retail business, and I assume that most stores followed suit during the 1970s and 1980s.

I am also assuming that Blue Chip stamps were also sold as well as Green Shield Stamps. I vaguely remember my father banking with the Co-op and getting stamps, and also he had cheque book-sized books of TV Licensing stamps as well.

[marc]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

[QUOTE=George 1978;221190]I don't remember them - this was well before my time. Did lots of shops have those machines?


Any shop that issued Green Shield stamps had these machines. Co-op stamps were exactly the same size, different colour and Co-op was printed on them.

Co-op and Green Shield stamps were the most common. Does anybody else remember any other shop giving out their own brand of stamps?

[Richard1978]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

My parents used to have some books of Co-op & Green Shield stamps around but were binned in a clearout.

Green Shield stamps were common to get with petrol until prices went high & the oil companies dropped them to keep costs down.

There were some pink stamps around, not sure who offered them.

[George 1978]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

I have to say that the image that we can see above reminds me of those documentaries about decimalisation from 1971 that we see sometimes. It would be great to have a look at the shelves of that shop to see the old-fashioned tins and boxes.

[marc]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s



Old Co-op dividend stamps. These seemed to be worth five of the original individual stamps.





Old Co-op Dividend saving stamps. These were the original individual stamps.

[staffslad]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

I remember the stamp dispensers very well. My parents collected Green Shield stamps and to a lesser extent those issued by the Co-op. It used to be my job to stick the stamps in the books. In the Green Shield books there used to be little encouraging messages throughout, like "You're half-way through" or similar, though probably those were not the exact words. I can't remember if there was much of a relationship between what you spent and how many stamps you got. I got the impression that the cashier would press the dispenser button until she felt like releasing it, though I might be wrong about that. Anyone remember the Green Shield catalogue having huge gifts like a car or boat? You had to collect an incredible amount of books to get those. Also, I seem to remember that with some gifts you could exchange your books for a gift or if you hadn't enough books you could exchange a smaller number plus cash to get the gift.

[sixtyten]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

I'm assuming the circle of buttons on the front had values on them (10p.50p,£1, etc) and the cashier typed in the amount spent and the machine issued the correct amount of tickets?

[staffslad]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

Not sure about that. I got the impression that the cashier just pressed a button and released it when she wanted to. I can't remember if the other buttons had values on them to automatically dispense the correct amount of stamps, but it would make sense that they did. However, whether the cashier bothered to do that in reality is another thing. It would be interesting if any members working with stamp dispensers in the 70s/80s could give their thoughts. I do remember that some cashiers would ask if you wanted the stamps or not. We always did as we were avid collectors. In fact, I got my first adult watch from collecting Green Shield stamps--an Ingersoll.

[CrystalBall]

Re: Machine above cash till in the 70’s

I think whether the correct number of stamps were given or not at the Co-op depended on the member of staff. I can remember one assistant that checked and double checked fastidiously whereas some did not seem so bothered. Sometimes (quite often actually) the dispensers were broken and the assistant would just pull stamps out of the top of the machine and tear them off the roll.