As a good customer I normally simply say yes to both. I already have a large collection of all kinds of stamps in my pocket and in all the drawers at home. Being human, I aim to complete my collections and to stick all my stamps on the stamp cards. Often around 50 or 100 stamps need to be put on a stamp card in order to benefit from one of the products which are offered. I find this a very interesting procedure and I feel like I’m in a win-win situation. Eventually my dreams will come true and I will exchange my stamps for one of the very nice luxury presents, like books, postcards, towels or cheaper tickets for a theme park. Spaarzegels certainly come in varying qualities: they all have regular perforations which have to be separated, but they don’t all stick properly to the card. And I am sometimes jealous of the skills of the cashier who knows how to tear these little stickers off exactly on the perforated lines. These Spaarzegels are no larger than a 5 cent coin, which is why most of my Spaarzegels get lost in my bags or pockets. Collecting saving stamps in the Netherlands is something special for me: a homely, old-fashioned habit in an otherwise so digitalized and modern country. Surely a habit I wouldn’t want to be without anymore.
Jutta Wirth, German lecturer in the Department of Animal Sciences