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.
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