Plaid Stamps in California

Uh...California.

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buckhead
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Plaid Stamps in California

Post by buckhead »

With all the discussion in another thread (http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... =27&t=2167) about Shopping Bag Food Stores and A&P in Southern California, does anyone recall if these stores ever gave Plaid Trading Stamps? Plaid was started by E. F. MacDonald Company; A&P was generally the exclusive grocery store to issue them (although the were NOT used in all A&P stores or regions). Since E. F. MacDonald owned Plaid, and A&P was their biggest customer for the stamps, is it possible that E. F. MacDonald acquired the A&P and Shopping Bag locations either to protect the market for Plaid Stamps or as a "courtesy" to A&P to retain the stamps in areas where A&P still operated and offered Plaid Stamps? I've not found any references to Plaid Stamps being used in California. I was just wondering if E. F. MacDonald used them at Shopping Bag and/or the acquired A&P units, or if possibly A&P already offered them during their tenure in California.
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by Groceteria »

I'm moving this to the California forum, since (per the subject) it is specific to that region.
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by runchadrun »

It doesn't look like A&P or Shopping Bag offered Plaid Stamps in Socal.

In a news report on the MacDonald's purchase of Shopping Bag, E.F. MacDonald (the man, not the company) was asked if they would use Plaid Stamps and he said,
"the Department of Justice asked me that question. I said that if they would make some decisions that would give us volume of $500 million a year in the area, we'll introduce them tomorrow." Until then, he said, the chain will use Blue Chip stamps, which he called "a fine system, in spite of what the Justice Department has done to it." (LA Times, 6/20/1967)
In addition, Mr. Von der Ahe of Vons said that it was his understanding that Plaid Stamps would not be introduced by MacDonald because "the company does not desire to enter this market."

As for A&P, a 1964 Socal A&P ad shows that they offered Blue Chip Stamps.

Here is the top of a full page ad in the LA Times from 1970:
Image

There's also an an from April 1971 offering triple Blue Chip Stamps. A Fazio's ad from shortly after they bought Shopping Bag said "we will still give Blue Chip Stamps through December 31, 1972."
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by jamcool »

It seems like Blue Chip had a near-monopoly in trading stamps in Cal, only a few chains offered S&H, and Gold Bond and Top Value were non existant there.
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by runchadrun »

Blue Chip was started in 1956 and owned by several retailers (Alexander's, Lucky, Purity, Ralphs, Safeway, Thrifty Drug, Vons, Market Basket, Raley's, and Thriftimart) as a response to S&H. That would explain the near-monopoly and, indeed, they faced an antitrust suit and the company was broken up into Socal and Norcal companies in 1966.
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by buckhead »

Thank you all for the responses.
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by rich »

Safeway was particularly instrumental in starting Blue Chip. Alpha Beta & Mayfair offered S&H stamps, but switched to Blue Chip sometime in the 60s. El Rancho had S&H stamps into the 80s.
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by klkla »

rich wrote: El Rancho had S&H stamps into the 80s.
Are these these the same El Rancho's owned my Mayfair? Where did they operate?
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by javelin »

Local chain Stater Bros offered Blue Chip stamps up to the early 80's. After that, it seemed most stores here switched to their own private stamp programs. Von's Expo stores had a stamp promotion for a while in the 90's. I haven't seen one here since.
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by rich »

Don't know who owned El rancho at that time. The one store I recall was on Huntington, next to May Co. at the Arcadia/Pasadena border. I believe it's the current Ralphs.
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Re: Plaid Stamps in California

Post by runchadrun »

Hughes bought El Rancho in 1979.

I remember Boys giving out Blue Chip Stamps into the early 1980's. Blue Chip Stamps still exists as a legal entity, as a holding company. They bought See's Candy in 1972 (which they still own) and were later bought by Berkshire Hathaway.
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