This is a beauty and pharmacy chain available in Canada.
It’s called Pharmaprix in Quebec, and Shoppers Drug Mart everywhere else, and it has a Shoppers Optimum Program where every dollar is 10 points, and the rewards chart looks like this:
There are a few promotions ever so often where you get 20x the points or 15x the points, if you spend at least $50 and sometimes only in certain categories.
Anyway, recently there was a promotion that said:
15x the points on everything if you spend $50 in the store
Or 15% off on all regular priced items if you spend $50 in the store
The better deal by far, was to get the points, because you’d earn 7500 points on $50 to score a $10 store credit (7000 points).
The 15% off deal was good, but not so hot because it’s only on regularly priced items which is hard to do unless you have a long list of things to stock up on.
So if you spent $50, that’s about $7.50 in immediate savings.
$10 versus $7.50?
No contest for me, I shop there on occasion for certain Burt’s Bees products and other such brands I cannot find elsewhere.
I also had a list of other things to buy I had been saving up, and it was the perfect time to take advantage of the deal.
$10 / $50 = 20% return
$7.50 / $50 = 15% return
Note: To calculate any kind of return on savings, just take your savings ($10 or $7.50) and divided it by the amount spent ($50 in this case), then multiply by 100.
But is it all worth this SPENDING?
At any rate, all of this “must-spend-to-get-points” sort of thing got me thinking:
If I had to spend $50 to get back $10 in a store credit under something that gives me a whopping 15 times the points how much would I have to normally spend to earn the same $10 credit?
15x MORE of course!
(Which is $750 instead of $50)
I would have to spend $750 to get back $10. Wow.
Looking at the fancy chart here’s what these points equal to in real dollar spending and your regular return for what you spend:
At the very top of the range with 75,000 points, the 2% return is not too shabby!
The only caveat is that you fall into this trap of thinking: “but I get Optimum points if I buy this!”
Yeah. Just look at that chart next time before you say that again.
But the love affair is over for me..
I am SO over being totally dedicated to this Optimum Program.
I’d only consider buying anything there if it was a 20x or 15x the points promotion.
The only time it’d be beneficial in points is having the Shoppers Optimum Points Credit Card because every dollar I spent on my card, I’d get 10 points.
With my traveling as a consultant and general grocery store spending, I r-a-c-k-e-d up the points and every 5 months or so, I’d get $150 (75,000 points) free to spend at Shoppers Drug Mart, without ever having set foot in the store.
It was a sweet deal. Until they screwed up the card & tried to re-issue me another one under Mastercard this time.
By that time, I had clued in to the following:
- their products in general are more expensive than a grocery store, or even Jean Coutu (QC)
- their points (without the credit card) were painfully slow to rack up
- I much preferred the PC points program (100 points per $1) because it buys FOOD*
*and other stuff like beauty products and clothes if you go to the Superstore.
Ultimately, for my regular spending on non-points promotional days, I’d rather save my immediate cash by paying the lower sticker price.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I want to know when the Optimum Point Sale comes. Flyers are never out soon enough for me to get the information. My store is in Lethbridge, Alberta…off Mayor Magrath Drive South. I want to redeem my points when 95,000 points = $200.000 vs the normal $170.00. How do I find out when the next one will be? The store doesn’t know until the very Saturday the sale starts. I missed one approximately 3 weeks ago. Will there be another before Christmas?
I am an avid “Try Me Free” Mail in Rebater and am very organized and methodical about tracking rebate returns. I hold on to all of my Mail in Rebate Offers and use the high priced ones for purchases on 20x the points day. That way I get all of my $$ back AND I get 20x the points. I did this for the Neutrogena Clinical and was able to rack up a significant amount of points in a short period of time as the product was over $60.00 (all of which I have already gotten back). Then I use the spend your points days to buy groceries to lessen my overall grocery bill (my SDM has plenty of grocery items including some veggies/fruit).
Oh I love that!
I always shop on 20x the points because it makes sense, but generally their
prices are much more expensive than anywhere else if it’s 20x the points.
HBC Rewards!
Guys…this is the best promotion there is. You need to get the optimum Credit Card though, that gives you 25 points for every dollar.
Let do the math together, the trick is to wait for their 20x the optimum point days, which come 3 or 4 times a year.
Spend $200 on anything, load up on makeup, diapers, groceries– but try to spend $200 on anything that you will use for the next 3 months. If you get 25 points with the Credit Card (mbna optimum card) so then $200 x 25 points = 5000 points buuut ….then times that by 20 because of the sale day and you end up with a total of 100,000 point. That has the value of $170 dollars. So you are spending $30 for the $200 worth of products. That is a saving value of 85% off everything….I don't want to many people cluing into this as they would have to change their policy, as they are obviously taking a loss on this.
Thanks John!
All I do is shop on 20x days. I don\’t need anything badly enough to buy immediately without waiting, although I do notice the prices are higher by $1 – $2 per item sometimes, so we\’d have to factor in the extra premium.
Great post! I am asked all the time if it's a good idea to shop for points! I blogged about it. Thanks for what you do! http://savingyourhardearnedmoney.blogspot.com/201…
Shoppers still has an awesome program I have to say. I don't use the credit card, but just the regular program. Usually I buy milk which SOMETIMES is cheaper than all the local stores so I just buy it there (about $3.99 vs $4.99) and the expiry is the same but you have to cheap before you buy it. Also eggs are pretty cheap there too. If you redeem the points during the redemption events it's about 33.3% return I believe in BC (currently) which is probably more in Central Canada because you guys get more money out of it.
But I guess it really depends where you live too. The reason why I don't like PC is because their stores are too far from where I am and there are lots of Shoppers nearby. Shoppers also usually has bonus points on stuff I plan to buy. Just takes some time to check every so often but I go there on my breaks.
Well now with the new changes, I don’t think it’ll be worth it for me to shop there any more, with the percentages dipping below 2%.
I also really notice big changes in the prices. $10.99 for a bottle of spray when it’s $7.99 at Loblaws.
I’d rather stick to my PC points program — you get the best of both worlds — food AND toiletries! 🙂 I guess you can even buy clothes too, at Joe Fresh
I love the Optimum Program too! And Shoppers Drug Mart- I like their products. We don't have a Jean Coutu out west here, we have a London Drugs, but everything is organized so messily on the shelves. LOL I'm a marketing sucker what can you say.
I cash out during the extra $10 or $20 events, like for 40,000 points you get $85 or 75,000 $170, and I shop during the 20x bonus points events.
THOUGH if you're on a lot of medications and you're low income, you've scored, because the government will be paying for your meds once you've reached the deductible, and you still get free stuff!
Yeah with the changes, you'll need more points to get less money.
I wonder if it's because their stock took a nose-dive, they need to do some cost cutting measures?
I have purchased the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and two digital cameras with my points. I look at the flyer to see if there is anything that I need. I agree that their prices are more than grocery stores. I also wait for the 15x or 20x the points bonus. I also like the reward program at Sephora. Everytime I make a purchse they tell me that I am eligible for a free samaple.
but I think come July 1st, it’ll be even less of a deal, even with 20x the points
I find the point program is like any other grocery and drug store marketing. They put a few items on sale or with extra points to lure people into the store. Once you're in the story, it's hard to leave without a bunch of other stuff you suddenly "need".
However, I think it's a little more worth it if you have kids, especially babies and are spending a lot of money on diapers, formula, food, medicine, and toiletries.
If you were going to spend the money anyway, the rewards help once in a while.
I do agree. But I think the points program from PC is much better, if you are talking about staples like toilet paper and so on.
PC sells almost everything now, just not the specialty brands in Shoppers such as Gosh or Boots… but it’s great for everything
your chart is actually outdated 🙂 lol. They got rid of the 3500/$5 benchmark about a year ago.
And they are changing it this coming July. It will no longer be 7000 points for $10 it will be 8000 points for $10 so basically more points for less money. So i am probably making it sound worse! LOL
and youre right, it is more expensive in general for items, but they do have good sales and i mean GOOD ones, better than the grocery stores sometimes.Esp on the food items they do have you can get them at a great sale sometimes you just have to watch the fliers 🙂
Wow! I thought I was the only one who did these calculations – literally optimizing my Optimum points. Just wanted to point out that the return on the $10 store credit is really $10/$60 = 16.67% (since you have to spend a total of $60 and get $10 off). This makes it pretty close to the 15% return.
I’m crazy for making sure the points make sense.
Thanks for the correction!
On July 1st Shoppers is changing the amounts of how many points you need to get a certain dollar amount back. I've been saving since September to reach that $55 mark (or, 30,000 points), and in less than a month, those points will be worth less. I'll need 38,000 points to get $60 in credit. There's no way I'll be able to spend enough money (on stuff I NEED) before that deadline, so I'm essentially going to be losing all the value on the points that I've accrued. It kinda makes me want to cash out now and start somewhere fresh!
I concur with your analysis wholeheartedly. I only shop on the 2"0x the points days", and only redeem on the "spend your points" days (where you get extra money for the same amount of points-e.g., $200 cash value for 75,000 points). There are a few things that I can only get there, so I save up a list until one of these days strikes. Also, my local store has lots of books and gift stuff, so I'll sometimes buy those there to get to the $50 minimum.
I have an Airmiles Mastercard and I try to go to Airmiles sponsors (Pharma Plus, Shell, Boston Pizza, etc) whenever possible. I also have a BMO account. The BMO account and the Airmiles Mastercard get me about 1500 airmiles a year for the spending I would do anyways. The BF and I are currently saving our Airmiles (we use the same account) to get our flights to Ireland for our honeymoon (in about 3-5 years) with the points.
I stopped going to Shoppers too, mostly because I find they are more expensive than Pharma Plus anyways. I also had a credit card that gave me Shoppers points, but like you, they tried switching it on me and I closed it.
I was just considering cashing in some of my Optimum points. I never have before. Not even sure I know how to do it LOL. When I first joined the program I bought like crazy there. An addiction to be sure. Eventually it clicked that most of the things I buy at Shoppers are higher priced there than say, Walmart. Was I really really saving anything? I now only shop there when they have the promotions. Thanks for breaking it down like this.
I enrolled in many reward programs (aeroplan, pc points, … you name it) with the idea "Why not ?" The only reward programs that I do not want to enroll is when you have to pay for their cards.
But I do not buy because of points …. if I get points it's good but that's not part of my decision when I buy something. Because, when I enroll, I'm always couting how much I need to spend to get a bonus and it usually is enought to make me realize that I will most probably never get their big rewards. But a 10$ here and there is always good to take.
My favorite are pc points and, as a huge movie consummer, the cineplex card which give you roughly a 10% return … and I heard they even improve it as on wednedays, tickets bought with points will be half the price (500 points instead of 1000 … you get 100 at each visit)
I like the Shoppers program but agree that it is more expensive to shop there. I usually only go there on 20 times the points days. You should google the Optimum program though as they are changing the reward levels as of July 1 – and not for the better.
I often shop at Boots, a pharmacy/drug store/chemists (whatever you call them) here in England. They have a loyalty card that rewards something like 1%. I don't always shop there – if SuperDrug has a better price, they get my business. Over a year (or two) the points to add up and I might use the points to buy myself a nice bottle of perfume or to help me out with Christmas shopping. I never make my purchasing decisions based on the points, but if I'm going to buy stuff there anyhow, why not collect them?
I love the Optimum Program. When I went away to school, Shoppers was my main source of food (lol) as well as laundry stuff, makeup, toiletries, reading material just because it was so convenient…Needless to say the points racked up quite fast. A couple of years ago I reached the peak points level and last year before our honeymoon I was able to pay for my Canon PowerShot camera with my points. Not a bad reward for buying stuff I would have been buying anyway!