Amsterdam - Dutch mother Jantien Moeremans, 35, visits her local bookstore once a week in search of yet another Miffy, a stuffed toy rabbit and hero of the acclaimed toddler book series by Dick Bruna, for her young daughters.

The Bruna bookstore chain, owned by the Bruna family, is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year prompting handouts of a free Miffy on every sale of 5 euros (8 dollars) and more.

The animals come specially packed and whoever collects 10 of them gets an even bigger animal for free.

"My girls just love Nijntje (as Miffy is called in Dutch), so they want to have the entire collection of 26 different Miffies," says Moeremans.

"The various Miffies wear the dresses my girls know from the various Miffy books. So once they have Miffy in her birthday dress or in her sportswear, then they can play the story from the book that recounts that particular story. It just makes them very happy."

The Miffy mania hit Bruna bookstores just after the main Dutch supermarket chain, Albert Heijn - part of Dutch Ahold that has branches across the United States and elsewhere - finished a hit Smurfs saving scheme.

During the last six weeks, spending a minimum of 15 euros per purchase in the Albert Heijn supermarket got a customer one of the 29 million Smurfs especially made for the chain.

Some 70,000 families, who usually never shop at Albert Heijn, have since turned their backs on their local supermarkets and flocked to Heijn stores in search of Smurfs for their kiddies causing tills to ring and profits to soar.

Saving systems have proved a curious feature of Dutch culture for over a century and they work a treat.

Tell someone they can get a little toy for free, if they spend a certain amount of money in the store, and they will take to their heels and often double their spend in that particular shop.

All Dutch gasoline stations have their own saving system as do 80 per cent of Dutch drug stores and 65 per cent of all supermarkets.

Permanent and temporary saving systems starring either a Miffy or a Smurf, for instance, compete with each other to woo the customer.

In the case of the Smurfs craze, the 29 million little blue plastic puppets were out of stock well before the saving party ended and Albert Heijn instantly hit on the idea of "Smurf Exchange Parties".

This venture saw stores opening at special times only for children and their parents, enabling the youngsters to exchange Smurfs and garner their most coveted toy.

Some stores hosting exchange parties were thronged by hundreds of children and their parents, who literally shopped until they dropped their groceries while the kiddies sized up the Smurfs on offer.

Historian Joost Dankers, affiliated with the Royal University of Utrecht, says the Dutch love of saving systems, is unique in the world and dates back to the late 19th century.

"This was the time during which the government encouraged the common citizen to open a savings account at a bank. The successful propaganda for savings accounts has made the Dutchman a fervent saver. He just loves to save."

And the numbers certainly bear testimony to that - nearly 1 per cent of the Netherlands gross national product annually goes on saving systems, equalling 5 billion euros.

Since 1955, the government has passed special laws to curb the number of saving systems and protect Dutch customers from their thrift.

In spite of those efforts, saving systems still play an important role in Dutch purchasing patterns and determine a customer's loyalty to certain stores.

Two main rivals of the Albert Heijn supermarket chain, C1000 and Jumbo, have already indicated that they too will launch new temporary saving systems. (dpa)