Shoppers Optimum Tips And Tricks

The Earn More and Redeem More sections have a lot of information that could be considered either tips or tricks and a small portion of that may be repeated here for emphasis.  However, there are also many aspects to the Shoppers Drug Mart shopping experience that aren’t directly related to earning or redeeming points, but that will help you get even greater value and prevent unneeded frustration.

Points Pointers

Dealing with points systems can be a headache so here is a list of quick points that will make sure you are in the know and hopefully help minimize the numbers of problems you run into.

The True Value of Points

It is easy to get overly enthusiastic once you start to understand the Optimum program and see all the potential points you can earn, which can cloud your judgement. One common mistake, or misconception, is that if you were to buy a single item valued $200 and through various promotions and points stacking techniques you earned a total of 50,000 points on that single item. First, people will tend to automatically assign a value of $100 to those 50,000 points because that is their value on a bonus redemption day but you have to keep in mind that is the best case scenario.

Furthermore, people will see this $100 value and think in their mind that this is a 50% discount on their $200 purchase. In fact, this isn't really true because that $100 must be spent on a future purchase at Shoppers Drug Mart; it isn't exactly $100 cash back in your jeans. The truth is that you are actually buying $300 worth of products at SDM and receiving a $100 discount. That's actually a savings of 33%, not 50%. The math becomes even worse when you factor in the taxes that aren't covered by your $100 in points and if you redeem your points at the regular redemption levels. Personally, I still like to think of it as a 50% discount because I try to only buy stuff at Shoppers Drug Mart that I need to buy anyway and that is priced competitive with other stores. Doing this essentially make my points equivalent to a cash refund because they represent value to me that is equivalent to cash. Whatever way you choose to look at it, it usually still works out to be a fantastic deal!

Delayed Bonus Points

Delayed bonus points aren't really a specific type of bonus but instead a general condition you need to be aware of that Shoppers Drug Mart occasionally uses as a condition on their various bonus points promotions. Sometimes you will be credited your bonus points immediately at the cash register and other times the terms and conditions for the promotion state that you will only receive your points at some future date. This date is usually within two weeks or less from the date of purchase.

Customer Service

The Shoppers Optimum customer service representatives should be your source for resolving almost any points related issue you might run across. You will find that these CSRs are typically infinitely more informed about how the point system and various promotions work when compared to the cashiers or even the managers and store owners. Don't be surprised if you encounter a cashier that doesn't even know the terms of a current promotion. I have even encountered cashiers that didn't even know that a current promotion was in effect and I had to tell them about it. The cashiers are usually informed about new promotions the day of before they start their shift, if their manager actually remembers to tell them about it.

The reason for this is because Shoppers Drug Mart head office is the one who administers the Optimum program and, I believe, takes on the majority of the cost of any points redeemed at their stores. The store owners likely pay a price to be able to participate in such a good rewards program, but I don't think the reward cost of every purchase made by consumers is directly applied to that specific store. If that were the case, I highly doubt my local store owner would be calling me and encouraging me to earn 20x the points on all my diabetes supplies, because they know I am going to turn around and redeem those points for free merchandise at their very own store. That would be very costly for them indeed and would likely eat up most, or all, of their prescription margins.

If you do end up in a situation where your points transaction was very poorly managed by the in-store staff, you can usually call in to get your problem promptly resolved. It may take several hours or a day for your transaction to become visible to customer service so you may want to wait a short while before calling in to make sure they everything they need to solve your problem. After fully explaining your plight, you can even politely ask for compensation in terms of a few extra points and they will often comply. I have actually had them offer to do this by their own accord on several occasions, but it never hurts to ask either, especially if you have a valid reason for doing so.

Spend Those Points!

Shoppers Drug Mart is pretty good at maintaining the value of their points but, as with most points programs, Optimum points do tend to slowly lose their value over time. In the past 5 years there have been two major changes to the Optimum rewards structure. The latest change on July 1st, 2010 was the worst because sweeping changes were made to every redemption level decreasing the overall value of everyone's points. The other change was several years ago when they totally changed the structure of how points could be redeemed. This change was mostly a good one in that no matter what points redemption level you chose, there was no minimum amount you had to spend on top of redemption amount. Before the change, you actually used to only get a portion of your purchase refunded, not the whole thing because there was a minimum spending amount attached to every redemption level except the highest one. The downside was that the highest redemption level wasn't worth as much as before. Bonus redemption days have also changed for the worse over time, which also devalues points for those people who always wait for a bonus redemption to shop. Not to mention that fact that promotions have a way of changing and the prices of products tend to creep upwards continually.

The lesson here is that you need to spend your points often. Don't save them for retirement, ok? Sure, you should save up for the highest redemption level so you can get the best rate of return, but you should probably be redeeming your points at least once per year, if not more. If the above reasons didn't persuade you, the fact that, according to their terms and conditions, they can choose to terminate the Optimum program at any time (or if they go out of business) should convince you to spend those points!

Quick Tips

Here are some simple tips that should help you even further:

• Bonus redemption days that are supposed to be specific to cosmetics often work for any product in the store. The higher redemption levels are pre-programmed into the registers and will automatically come up if you simply inform the cashier that you wish to pay with points after all your items are rung in. However, if it doesn't work you can always void the transaction before it is complete. Another approach would be to get a cashier to run a simple test with a single expensive item that they can easily void before you pick up the items you originally intended to.
• It is quite difficult for a store clerk or manager to return points to your account. If you need to return something that you bought with points they will normally just give you the cash instead. If you really need a points adjustment, calling customer service will likely save you a lot of time.
• You can get 1,000 free points for signing up for the SDM newsletter. [expired]

Other Promotions

Shoppers Drug Mart does offer several other promotions that are unrelated to the Optimum program but most of these aren't really worth mentioning. These are a few of the better ones.

Seniors Days

Every so often, usually on a Thursday, Shoppers Drug Mart has a senior's day. While the majority of the people reading this probably aren't seniors, I kid you not in saying that many deal addicts at RedFlagDeals and elsewhere will drag their senior parents or grandparents out to SDM on these days to reap the benefits. Actually, I believe the age to qualify as a senior at SDM is quite low at 55. The offers can vary a little bit, but usually seniors will receive a 20% discount on their entire purchase. You can imagine for low margin items like electronics or Nintendo Wiis, this can be quite a discount. Not only that, but you can combine the discount with a points redemption to make your points even more valuable. On top of this discount there will sometimes be an additional promotional item they will give out to seniors on this day when they spend a minimum amount, usually $50, in one transaction. I have seen this item be a book of stamp or a $10 gift card, among other things. Another great way to take further advantage of these days is to use any bonus point coupons you may have that cannot be combined with other points offers. That way you are getting a great discount and extra points as well.

Gift Card Promotions

The second most common weekend promotion at Shoppers Drug Mart , other than some kind of points promotion, are the gift card promotions. They actually didn't use to have a promotion every weekend advertised in their flyer, but it seems they always do now. Now, it is even quite common for them to have another promotion going on Monday to Friday in addition to their weekend promotion. Honestly, I have no idea how they get away with offering so many promotions as you would think it would decrease the overall marketing value.

These gift card promotions usually offer a $10 gift card or gift certificate to another retail establishment (Canadian Tire, Petro Canada, Esso, Subway, Montana's, etc) if you spend a minimum of $50. Less frequently they have a second option of spending $75 or more and you will receive a $20 award instead. These gift cards or gift certificates aren't always real gift cards in the hard plastic form as you would normally think of them. Usually, it is a gift certificate that is somewhat more restrictive. The only restriction they normally apply is a very short expiry date of a few weeks to a few months and thankfully I've never seen them attempt to apply a minimum purchase to these cards, which would make them nothing more than a glorified coupon and not a gift card at all.

By my calculations, the points promotions are significantly more valuable than these gift card promotions and therefore you should almost always avoid them entirely. The only time I would recommend taking advantage of one of these promotions is if there is a particularly good sale on that week or if you are able to stack bonus points and coupons in such a way that the situation becomes increasingly favourable for you.

Stacking

Stacking is probably the most powerful concept a person can employ when attempting to save money on their purchases. I have actually written a SaveLog post about it here. The concept is simple: apply as many promotions, coupons, bonus points, mail in rebates, sales, credit card offers, price matches, and other discounts as you can to a single item that you are purchasing or transaction you are making. Many people call this double-dipping or triple-dipping or even quadruple-dipping depending on how many promotions and discounts you can stack together. There is no easy way to describe all the possible stacking scenarios but the more experience you have with it the more creative you can get! Here are some ways you can apply stacking specifically to your Shoppers Drug Mart purchases.

Manufacturer Coupons

Manufacturer coupons are a very valuable thing at Shoppers Drug Mart because they help you earn more points while spending less and get more products when redeeming your points. Typically if you need to purchase $50 to meet a minimum spend requirement for a promotion the system doesn't care if you use coupons to pay for part of the purchase. So, if you purchase $50 worth of products to meet the minimum spend on a 20x the points day, but have $20 worth of coupons for those products, then you will in fact only have to spend $30 out of pocket and still get 20x the points on the entire $50 purchase. Imagine if you could take that even further and only spend $10 out of pocket, then you have an amazing deal on your hands!

Similarly when redeeming points, coupons will reduce your total bill such that you can actually buy more products than you normally would with the same amount of points. For example, if you are redeeming 75,000 points for $200 worth of products on a bonus redemption day you could actually buy $250 worth of stuff if you had $50 of coupons to go along with the products you are buying and end up paying nothing but the taxes. If you apply this couponing technique on both ends when you earn and when you redeem points your effective rate of return will skyrocket.

The only thing to watch out for when redeeming coupons is how the coupon is coded by the cashier when they are entering it into the cash register. Coupons can be coded as either 2001 or 2002, which affects how the discount is applied. If it is coded incorrectly, it can cause you not to reach your minimum spend amount and lose your bonus points. If you are concerned about this, make sure to check your receipt for the points immediately after you make a purchase.

Coupon code 2001 is reserved for regular coupons that give you a fixed discount in dollars and cents, which is printed right on the coupon. Coupons coded this way are treated as a method of payment instead of a discount or sale on the product so you still have to pay taxes on the full price of the product and the full price of the product will be counted towards any spending thresholds you need to meet. Coupon code 2002 is reserved for Free Product Coupons (FPCs) which don't have a fixed amount printed on the coupon but instead cover the entire amount of the product. Coupons coded this way are treated as a discount in that you don't have to pay anything for the product, you aren't taxed for the cost of the product at all, and the cost of the will not count towards promotions and spending thresholds. If you can convince the cashier to ring an FPC coupon in as 2001 instead of 2002, then you will have to pay the tax but it will also be counted towards your promotion spending threshold. The lesson here is to make sure you pay close attention to how your coupons are coded when trying to reach a minimum spending amount for a promotion.

Bonus Points

As mentioned elsewhere, you should always attempt to buy products that have product bonus points attached to them because this will usually stack with other promotions. Optimum bonus point coupons are another good thing that will usually stack as well. You may also be able to stack product line bonus points that have a minimum spend attached to them as well but this is much more likely to fail, especially when redeeming points, than the other options, so don't count on it working. Checking to see what success other users are having in various deal forums is a good way to find out if a minimum spend promotion will stack with another promotion you are taking part in.

Buy Shoppers Drug Mart Branded Gift Cards First

Another thing I've harped on to death in this section is buying an Shoppers Drug Mart branded gift card before making your purchase. This will always give you an extra 1x points on your purchase. You can do this on 20x points days to get 21x the points, or when buying prescriptions with the amount leftover that you have to pay, or on the remaining tax after you redeem your points, or when you just have to buy something at SDM. Gift cards are as good as cash so if you ever have to fork over money at SDM, you might as well be using a gift card. Keep in mind that there is a $200 cap on gift cards so that is the maximum you can fill it with. Gift cards are also reloadable so you can keep topping up your card when the balance gets low.

Credit Card Rewards

As I recommend when buying anything, use your credit card whenever you make a purchase at Shoppers Drug Mart or elsewhere because this is something that you can almost always stack with any other promotion. As per the previous section, the best thing to do is to use your credit card to buy or reload an SDM gift card before you make your purchase. Also, if you really want more SDM points you can use the MBNA Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum MasterCard to get the maximum possible amount of points.

Sales

Taking advantage of great sales, loss leaders, and seasonal clearances is, of course, another form of stacking.

Warnings

So far I have presented you with endless reasons why you should shop at Shoppers Drug Mart and reap the rewards of the Optimum program and their great sales. However, as it turns out shopping at this great store isn't just roses all the time. There are a few important things you should take heed of when shopping there.

Account Monitoring

Shoppers Drug Mart does definitely monitor the Optimum accounts of their members for suspicious activity and abuse. They do have the right to reverse points transactions, wipe out your entire points balance, suspend, or even cancel your account permanently. What kind of activities could lead to this sort of thing you might ask? Well, the biggest one I can think of is repeatedly buying products with points and then refunding your entire points purchase for cash. Points have no cash value and are not meant to be exchanged for cash in this fashion and if you abuse this system they will deal with you accordingly. In general, try not to do anything that is to exploitative and you should be just fine!

Expiry Dates

One thing my local Shoppers Drug Mart stores are particularly bad for is selling expired food products and I believe knowingly doing so. It is very common to see a bright red sale tag advertising a great price on a product only to discover that the product has been expired for over a month. Buyer beware, whenever purchasing food at SDM be sure to check the expiry date first!