Love It: Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum Points

You may recall that I ran myself ragged trying to find a Wii gaming console a couple of years ago – not just the console, but for cheaper than the regular retail price. I hunted high and low but came up empty... until a coworker suggested I use my Optimum points to buy a console from Shoppers Drug Mart. Stroke of genius! And after I found a branch that had one in stock I did just that, saving myself a hefty chunk ($75 I think?).

Since then, I’ve been a complete convert. When I decided I wanted the Wii Fit, the search was again, and it wasn’t until after an afternoon performance of Jersey Boys (laugh if you want, it was awesome) that I tracked one down. I had enough points to almost pay for it. And guess what? It happened to be ‘spend your points’ day, so I got a further chunk off. In the end, that cost me $14 instead of $114. I also got myself a bluetooth ear phone thingie, which I’ve ended up not really using (ah well). And today, oh yes, today I made yet another awesome purchase – the SensatioNail LED gel polish kit plus an extra gel polish, which I’ve wanted for a while. Original price for the two items: $112, plus tax. My price today: $12.40 after taxes.

I’m often asked how I always have enough points for all these expensive things – the answer is planning! There are always things that I need to buy from Shoppers, but if it isn’t urgent I’ll put it on a list. Then, as the list grows, I check my weekly emails from Shoppers outlining what Optimum deals we can look forward to, and I wait for the 20x The Points days – and when they come around, that’s when I go shopping! Usually you have to spend a certain dollar amount before those deals go into effect, but with the list I always end up with enough. Even better are the Spend Your Points days, like the one we just had. So it turns out I had $85 worth of points to spend, and because I waited until the Spend Your Points day I got an extra $15.

Wow, I just realized I sound like a commercial for Shoppers Drug Mart. It’s not all good of course – about two years ago they sneakily changed how many points you needed for certain discounts – not like they were stealing your points, but by shifting it up to a higher point level to get a higher discount, it encourages people to use them before they’re really worth something. If I didn’t always check the back of the receipt I never would have noticed!

So that’s one more favourite thing – what’s yours?