Redeem Shoppers Optimum Points For More

One of the most easy and consistent ways to increase the overall value of a rewards program is to pay careful attention to how you redeem your rewards points or miles.  The Optimum program complements its generous earning opportunities with several great ways to get more value for your points.

Bonus Redemption Days

Less frequently than the 20x Points Days, no more than four times a year, Shoppers Drug Mart has bonus redemption days that apply to every item in the store. They also have cosmetics bonus redemption days, but those are useful to a lot less people. These events used to be secret and advertised via snail mail, but for a long time now they have been advertised as public events in the weekly flyer. On these special days the points that you earned on 20x the points day, when redeemed at the top 2 levels, effectively become worth more as follows:

Click to reveal the previous redemption levels before the July 1st, 2010 changes.

Sale Items Are Key

Anytime when shopping at Shoppers Drug Mart, focussing on sale items is absolutely critical! The reason for this is that they have some of the highest mark-up on their products that you will find anywhere. This definitely isn't Walmart we're talking about here! Although, Walmart can have surprisingly high mark-up as well, which is another story entirely. That being said, there are also incredible bargains to be found at SDM, particularly those sale items found in their weekly flyer. The front page of the flyer and the food insert are often the places where you will see the best deals it is also common for them to have Saturday, Sunday, or Monday only specials that are even better.

Loss Leaders

It is almost certain that Shoppers Drug Mart uses the loss leader form of selling on a regular basis. A loss leader is a product that is priced incredibly well, much better than you will find anywhere else most of the time. The reason no other store can match the price is because the store selling it either has a very favourable deal with the manufacturer or distributor to sell it cheaply or they are actually selling the product below their own cost. Why would they do this you ask? The reason is simple. They want to get people in the store so that they will buy other overpriced products for convenience sake while they are there to pick up that cheap butter that drew them into the store in the first place. Consumers are becoming more savvy and will often go to a store only to buy those products on sale but doing so is time consuming, costly in gas, and requires increased planning and organization. For this reason there are still plenty of people who will buy lots of items that are very profitable for the store giving them a net gain.

Clearance Items

Shoppers Drug Mart has an unusually high quantity of clearance items when compared to other stores. Modern SDM stores have grown so much that they now actually resemble mini Superstores or Walmarts. They carry a wide array of products and seasonal merchandise, including everything from BBQ tools to video games and movies. SDM has even sold Playstation 3s, Wiis, XBox 360s and iPods at various points in their history. The problem is that most people don't associate a drug store with all of this extra merchandise. It's starting to catch on, but isn't quite there yet. People aren't going to automatically think "Shoppers" when they go out to purchase a new Wii or outdoor lawn furniture. So what you have is many SDM stores all in the same city stocking merchandise for all 4 seasons and every major holiday throughout the year. The merchandise changes so fast that there are always items marked with special clearance or sale tags that aren't advertised in the flyer or anywhere else. These sales often aren't even chain-wide and are decided upon by the store manager. For this reason it pays to make regular visits to the store to see what is coming on clearance. Obviously you want to combine this with 20x point days and bonus redemptions. See the stacking portion of the Tips & Tricks section for more on that.

Weak Sales

One thing to watch out for is weak sales. It obviously makes sense to shop almost exclusively on 20x the points days, referral days, and bonus redemption days. However, it isn't coincidental that on these special days that are guaranteed to attract a crowd that you will find a lot less items in the flyer that are heavily discounted. The flyer may actually be physically smaller or there may be just as many items but the discount is a lot less and most of the products could be found cheaper elsewhere. Shoppers Drug Mart is actually pretty good at always at least having a handful of items that are really well priced even on those special days, but you have to be extra diligent to make sure that all the points you are earning really are saving you money in big picture.

In some cases it may even make sense to shop on a 15x day instead of a 20x day or to do a redemption at the regular level on a day with no promotions or a worse promotion (because there is usually at least one promotion every week). If you're saving more than that extra $30 $50 because you're buying a lot more sale items, then you will be better off that way.

Stocking Up

One of the best ways to get the most out of your entire shopping experience at Shoppers Drug Mart is to stock up on those items that go on sale at heavy discounts. You can do this by making a list of all the non-perishable items and food items that have long expiry dates which you can buy at SDM. Then you watch for the promotions, 20x points and bonus redemptions in particular, along with the weekly sales and buy those items in larger quantities than you normally would. For example, if you are having a hard time reaching $50 on a 20x points day, buy 5+ bottles of the hand soap that is on sale instead of the usual 1 or 2 that you normally would. Similarly, don't let a bonus redemption pass you by if there are just a few items actually on sale, just buy more of those products because the bonus redemptions don't come around that often. Eventually you will get into a sort of rotation and you will always be fully stocked on most things so that whenever you need something you don't have to rush out and buy it at full price. That way you're always buying most things at heavily discounted prices while maximizing your points.

Redeeming Points For Fixed Value Products

As discussed in other sections, products at Shoppers Drug Mart can have inflated prices and if you have a literal ton of points it can be hard to always get the maximum value for your points. This is where fixed value items come in. It would actually be perfect if you could simply redeem your points for gift cards at the gift card mall but, since that is against the terms and conditions of the Optimum program, buying fixed value products is the next best thing. What are fixed value products? They are products that have a very low mark-up and tend to have a fixed price no matter what merchant is selling them. Big ticket items are the best because you really get a sense of satisfaction when you walk out the door with a product that costs $200 down the street at FutureShop and you got it for free at SDM with your points. Here are some ideas of products that are either sold at SDM now or have been in the past to get your started.

• Video games and systems (PS3, Wii, XBox360, DS Lite, etc).
• Flat panel televisions.
• Digital cameras and camcorders.
• Mp3 players and iPods.
• Stamps - the books found at the cash, not the post office.
• Prints of your photographs.
• Passport photos.
• Milk - except in the Atlantic Provinces.
• Magazines and novels.
• Greeting cards.

Food

Food is a great item to purchase at Shoppers Drug Mart for a multiple of reasons. A few of them are as follows:

• The prices are often cheaper than the supermarket. Here are a few examples I've seen.
  • $0.99 - 2L Coke & Pepsi products
  • $0.99 - dozen eggs
  • $0.49 - facial tissues
  • $1.50 - butter
  • $0.99 - Pringles
  • $2.99 - Breyer's ice cream
  • $3.99 - Breyer's premium ice cream
• There is no tax on food so when redeeming points for all food items your purchase is 100% free.
• There is an entire food section in the flyer every week or two with very good prices.
• Shoppers has their own 'Organics' line of products that are reasonably priced, taste great, and are more natural.
• The most diverse and the largest stores have almost everything but fresh meat and produce.
• Most SDM stores accept legitimate coupons of any kind including those printed online.
• Candy, sweets, and gifts items often go on sale very cheaply.
• There is a large selection of seasonal and holiday treats that are always cleared out after the holiday passes, often at a 50% discount or more.
• Food makes it easy to reach your minimum spend for points promotions while making sure you are buying something you actually need!

So, as you can see, no trip to Shoppers Drug Mart should be complete without spending a significant amount of time in the food isles. It always baffles me when people post on forums in SDM threads that couldn't possibly find $50 worth of things to buy there. I feel that food is the answer for these people because, after all, we all need to eat.

Pay With Points [Expired]

Every so often in the weekly flyer there will be special items that will be marked as "pay with points" items. These items have a specific points value tied to them where you can purchase that item solely with points. In the earlier days of this promotion it wasn't uncommon for items to be assigned points values that did in fact represent an even better value than you would get if redeeming your points at the regular levels for merchandise. The value was actually even better because when paying with points for a single item taxes are included. When redeeming points any other time you always have to pay the tax, no matter what, so this is a really popular option for those people who want to get something entirely free with their points.

Unfortunately, as time wore on Shoppers Drug Mart started to reduce the number of pay with points items in their weekly flyer and more flyers would appear without any at all. Nowadays, I don't recall seeing any items in the flyer that are pay with points but I wouldn't rule out them bringing this promotion back on occasion especially during holidays when they bring in seasonal merchandise that they want to clear out. I once used this promotion to get a free Sony mini stereo system for our kitchen and we still use that system every day and love it.

This promotion may not be completely expired because I heard someone talking about an item that they got solely with points and without paying taxes just recently, but I am going to leave it marked as expired until I get more concrete evidence. Keep your eyes peeled though, as something just might come up!

Life Experience Packages [Expired]

Life Experience Packages used to be a fantastic way to redeem your points for something unique and different.  Shoppers Drug Mart is a partner that participates in this program which means you can purchase these packages directly at cash registers at their participating stores.  The packages themselves range from things like going to a local attraction or theme park to crazier things like going flying in a fighter jet!  It used to be that you could redeem your points for these packages as well, but eventually they decided to add them as an exclusion in their terms and conditions probably because they have a low profit margin and don’t earn much from the sale of each package.