Fisher's Ad with Wampum Specials – Nov. 4, 1964

For more than half a century, grocery stores have used a variety of creative tactics to get shoppers to regularly patronize their establishments. 

In recent years, the loyalty card programs have ruled. Giant Eagle, for example, uses fuel discounts at its GetGo stations as an incentive for their card holders to keep coming back.

Back in the 1950s and 60s, Top Value Stamps were popular, and helped Kroger's maintain market share. There were also various programs at other stores in which shoppers could assemble a set of encyclopedias, or even a set of dishes, one each week.

But here's a program that I've never heard of, used by the local Fisher's chain of stores: wampum coins. 

I had originally planned to post the above Journal ad from November 4, 1964 because of the funny illustration of the kid with the apple and the roll call of brand name products. But while reading the ad copy, I saw a mention of Orange Wampum Specials and became curious as to how the incentive program worked.

I found this explanation that ran in the paper on June 20, 1964. It seems that the Orange and Blue Wampum coins were earned by spending money at the store. The coins could then be used as money on weekly specials that were color coded to correspond with them.

In this full page ad from June 18, 1964, we get a look at one of the coins (the Native American is holding one.)

The whole Wampum coin gimmick enabled Fisher's to feature a lot of cartoon Indian clip art in its ads.

July 15, 1964 ad

July 29, 1964

Of course, today the whole Wampum program would be seen as politically incorrect and in bad taste, and rightly so. But in the more innocent times of the early 1960s, after a decade of TV Westerns dominating the airwaves, it was just a way to have some fun while saving money.