Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
One of the best rewards programs in Canada is PC Optimum Points, and you can earn them fast.
Get the most out of PC Optimum Points! Learn strategies to earn points fast and enjoy free groceries and products.
Shoppers need to know how we grew our points balance over 7.5 million.
That’s over $7500 in free products, including groceries at local Loblaw stores.
Let me show you what we do.
Load Your PC Optimum Offers And Watch Points Grow
You will not often see me buying a cart full of groceries at Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) as I find the store pricey, but when I do, I have an excellent reason for it.
That reason is likely because I am getting a boatload of Shoppers Optimum Reward points for buying a load of stuff, or I’m redeeming points for a ton of free groceries.
How to Earn Shoppers Optimum Rewards Points Fast
In my opinion, the Shoppers Optimum Rewards program is the best reward program in Canada.
Shoppers Drug Mart does not pay me to promote their program (I wish!), but I love it so much that I tell everyone who will listen.
It is quite simple to rack up lots of Optimum points in a short period.
Every 10,000 points is like $10 worth of free stuff. Redeem your PC Optimum™ points at special Spend Your Points events for more value.
Only Shop 20X PC Optimum Points Days
Many people don’t know that the only time you should ever set foot inside an SDM location is when hosting a bonus point promotion (20x the PC Optimum points when you spend $50, $75, $90, etc).
Even the SDM beauty boutique offers 20x PC Optimum Points when you spend $125.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule (prescription pick-up, checking out clearance deals, or only buying their special sale items).
Generally, I tell people to avoid Shopper’s Drug Mart until a special points promotion occurs.
Only buy what is on sale and better or comparable prices to other stores such as Canadian stores and pharmacies.
Related: The Most Expensive Grocery Stores in Canada
Use the Flipp App or search your mobile phone before shopping to create a list and prepare coupons.
Tip: Coupons count towards your out-of-pocket total.
If you need to spend $50 to earn 20x the points on your transaction and want to use $20 worth of coupons, you will only spend $30 but will earn points on that $50 price.
Bonus Point Coupons and Offers
There are always special bonus point offers available that you can use to bump up your points faster.
Check out the Shoppers Drug Mart website to load your PC Optimum deals of the week and get notifications of in-store points offers.
While shopping, always pay attention to the shelves in the store because some products will advertise special offers.
For example, buying 2 Windex and earning 500 Bonus PC Optimum points may be on the shelf tag.
Personalized PC Optimum Offers
Any time you swipe your PC Optimum rewards or MasterCard, what you purchase is documented.
Loblaw stores do this to tailor PC Optimum Point offers to the products you buy the most.
For example, we buy lots of President’s Choice Apple Juice, and almost weekly, our offers include 200 bonus points for each bottle we buy.
Whether you’re shopping for your favourite foods, daily essentials or little indulgences, PC Optimum™ tailors your rewards to match the things that you buy most. – PC Optimum
Check The Clearance Rack
Almost every Shoppers Drug Mart store has a clearance rack inside and at various places throughout the store.
Learn where they keep these racks at your SDM location and make it a habit to check it regularly for reduced-priced products.
The clearance deals at Shoppers Drug Mart are some of my favorites, especially when products are being discontinued or near expiry.
Remember that just because something is on clearance doesn’t mean you can’t earn PC Optimum points on that item.
Tip: Some clearance items also offer special PC Optimum points offers, so watch for these stickers, too!
Shoppers Optimum Gift Card
Although you don’t earn points when you buy other store gift cards at Shoppers Drug Mart, you will earn PC Optimum points when you purchase gift cards to redeem at Shoppers Drug Mart.
Note: You will only earn regular PC Optimum points on SDM gift cards, not bonus points (so do not buy a $50 gift card on 20x the points day and expect to earn 20x the points on that gift card purchase).
Tip: Purchase a Shoppers Drug Mart gift card to earn these extra points before you shop.
Defer PC Optimum Offers
When you load your weekly offers, you can defer the PC Optimum Offer until the next week if you don’t plan to shop that week.
Using this benefit with the program allows customers to push their offers to the next week to shop or plan to shop.
PC Optimum Points Are The Best Rewards In Canada
As mentioned, I believe the Shoppers PC Optimum program is the best rewards program in Canada.
There’s no other rewards program out there (that I know of, anyway) that will reward you with so many points for so little cash out-of-pocket.
Although the Shoppers Drug Mart PC Optimum rewards program is the best in Canada, I also like Canadian Tire Rewards; the tools and garden centre are good.
Over the years, we’ve redeemed thousands of dollars in PC Optimum Points to furnish our home with and continue to do so.
Since 2018, we’ve earned $8,695 or 8,695,000 PC Optimum Points.
That’s incredible!
What We’ve Redeemed Our PC Optimum Point For
Below are a few items we’ve redeemed our PC Optimum points for.
- 3x 32-inch televisions
- 2x net-books
- 2x Blue-ray player
- Hard-Drive
- Cologne
- Perfume
- Cosmetics
- Over-the-counter medicine
- Cleaning supplies
- Food
- Samsung tablet
- PlayStation 4
- Video Games
Boost your rewards by Shopping on 20x PC Optimum Points events, loading your PC Optimum offers on the app or online, pairing coupons with flyer deals and in-store exclusive offers, and subscribing to the PC Optimum program.
We have over 4 million PC Optimum points we’ve collected over the past almost 4 years.
- Update: In July 2021, we have 6 million PC Optimum Points
- Update: In July 2024, we have 7.5 million PC Optimum Points
As for the electronics, they are still working and have yet to have any problems over the years; fingers crossed.
Other Ways To Earn PC Optimum Points Fast
Finally, you will also earn PC Optimum points when you shop at participating Loblaws or Presidents Choice grocery stores, Joe Fresh Clothing and Accessories, PC Flower shops, PC Mobile, PC Mortgages, PC Debit Card, and PC MasterCard.
By shopping, PC® Mastercard® cardholders can get up to 10% back in points in combination with the PC Optimum™ program!
Earn points in-store, online, at points events and through personalized offers with your online account.
Earn 15 points on almost every dollar you spend at Shoppers Drug Mart® and Pharmaprix®.
Exclusively at participating Shoppers Drug Mart, Shoppers Home Healthcare, and Pharmaprix stores (in Quebec) and online at beauty.shoppersdrugmart.ca and wellwise.ca, earn 15 PC Optimumpoints for every dollar spent on eligible products.
Get points in store, online and at points events at participating stores, like the Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix “20x the points” events.
Earn PC Optimum™ points when you purchase fuel at more than 2000 Esso™ and Mobil™ stations across Canada.
SDM website
We Are Simplii Financial Members
As a customer of Simplii Financial for almost 20 years, we have had no issues.
We love them the most because they are a no-fee bank, earn PC Optimum Points, and accepted me as a client when I moved to Canada.
It’s one of the best Canadian banks that do not have a brick-and-mortar business.
Everything is done online, using the Simplii Financial App or through CIBC bank, which we also use.
Join Simplii Financial today! No monthly fees. Great rates. As simple as that. TM
Earn A $50 Referral Fee.
When you use your friend’s unique link to open a No Fee Chequing Account, High-Interest Savings Account, or Personal Line of Credit
Remember, if you don’t load your PC Offers, you won’t get the points when you shop!
Related: Savings, Freebies, Deals, Codes and Rewards In Canada
Discussion: What secrets do you have to help others earn PC Optimum Points Fast?
Share your comments below.
Thanks for reading,
Mr. CBB
Those are some good tips but I think you forgot the most obvious: get a credit card offering Shoppers Optimum Points. I have an MBNA Shoppers Drug Mart Mastercard (soon to be taken over by RBC) and if I use it at Shoppers Drug Mart, I get an extra 15x the points for every dollar I charge. In conjunction with my Shoppers Optimum card, this means that I get 25x the points for every dollar that I spend at Shoppers (10x for the Optimum card plus 15x for the credit card).
I’m not big on recommending credit cards, but yes, if you use it responsibly, the Shoppers Mastercard is a great way to earn points fast!
Thank you for sharing! I am downloading your free e-book now!
Wow, Mr. CBB! You’ve definitely racked up some nice things using your rewards points! We don’t have anything quite that nice here in the States, that I know of unless you’re using a credit card. We’re using that to get enough points to be able to go to San Diego next summer.
Wow Mr. CBB! You racked up some nice rewards off your points! I am not aware of anything this nice here in the States, unless you use credit cards. We’re currently using our to save up for a trip to San Diego next summer.
I wish there was a shoppers closer to us. I like knowing how to maximize all the little point programs out there. 🙂
Love the Shoppers Optimum Program! By far my fave points program, and the fact that its all FREE is even better!
I know many people have had issues with Shoppers adjusting promos last minute and changing limits recently, but if you plan appropriately and use your coupons strategically you can still score a TON of points with minimal out of pocket expense:)
I shopped the 20x event last Saturday. I looked at the flyer and figured that I wanted to spend about $100.00, so I purchased a $100.00 gift card before I started, earning 1000 pts. I showed up early Saturday morning and not everything was scanning at the sale price so I cited SCOP and got Tenderflake lard FREE. Everything I purchased was on sale AND had a coupon, except for Citrical petites, which I use regularly so was happy to get on sale without a coupon. When I got to the shelf, there was a box with 6.00 store coupons attached to it and so I got the box for 3.99 (reg 11.99). SCORE!
The customer behind me was asked if he had an optimum card when he cashed out. His reply was “No, but with shopping like that lady, maybe I should get one”.
My hubby put me in front of a mirror with my coupon binder and said the people at Shoppers would take a picture of me and make a poster to put at the cash banning me from the store for theft! HA HA!
Overall I spent $127.70 OOP, saved $51.20 from sale purchases, used $23.50 in coupons, and earned 28,200 Optimum points.
Now that’s a great shopping haul!
Awesome job! It looks like you found an opportunity to stock up!
Thought that was you when I started reading!!!! Excellant article as always!!I really wish I could get my hot little hands on the shoppers flyer every week. The online version just doesn’t cut it for readability. Right after I got an optimum card they stopped sending the flyers our way!! I have complained but so far it hasn’t done me any good….I will stop into the store if I’m in Stratford and the manager there is quite good about giving me a copy of the upcoming flyer if it’s Thursday or Friday ….. I’d still like to get the flyer in with the rest of them but I’ll keep nagging…
Although Shopper’s Drug Mart’s prices are generally much more expensive for the essentials compared to Wal-Mart, they do tend to have decent sales here and there. You just have to do enough price comparison to recognize that it is a good deal. While I have been a long time Optimum card holder, my beef is that the minimum points required tp reap the rewards has been raised twice. I clearly remember it being 7,000 pts when I first joined, and then it went up to 7500 and then without warning, at least to me, it jumped to 8,000. It feels like it takes forever and a million purchases just to reach that first redemption level.
I go to Shoppers each week and purchase two bags of milk and four boxes of tissues and then any item needed that is on a great price.Purchasing just the six items a week ( milk and tissues) get me $30. in Optimum points each year. So that is without even trying.
Just want to mention that I purchase Shoppers gift cards and get the points when I purchase the card and then when I redeem them, however I only go to one Shoppers.
Wow Donna, that is amazing. I would never have $100. to just spend at a drug store, But………!
Anna I don’t get the fliers either. Part of living in the boonies, they like city people only I think!
This sound similar to the new program Walgreen’s Drugstores in the US has started. It is overpriced, but like you said, if you shop the sales and get the points, it can pay off. My problem is that it takes so much time to figure out a good deal that the sale is over before I decide!
I take calcium and multivitamins which are expensive and used up a bunch of coupons stocking up on shampoo, deoderant, toothpaste and bodywash which will be stocking stuffers for my 4 mostly adult children. I also bought a shrimp ring and some crackers for Xmas functions.
Thanks Cassie for your comment. I only knew how to tackle this sale because of the advice I read on your blog. I read you and Mr. CBB religiously.
Glad you were able to take advantage of it!
I will get groceries there when they are on special – otherwise, they’re way too expensive! But they often have good deals on oatmeal, cream, etc..I really should check my point balance!
Hmm interesting! I wish there was a shoppers closer to me, I’d make use of these tips! In fact, I don’t use any rewards cards at all.
I use to be neurotic about shoppers points and have cashed in a few times for free stuff but stopped when I started working for the competitor and getting a wicked discount though them…but now that I’m no longer with said competitor I’m trying to get better at shopping there although, and I know this is silly, I DESPISE their flyer layout. It drives me crazy.
Haha, that’s too funny! What is it you don’t like about the layout?
Thanks for sharing those tips!
I don’t think that we have Shoppers Drug Mart down here in Arizona, but the same strategies would apply to similar stores here.
I keep forgetting about buying the gift card before your purchase, gonna have to try and budget that into my shopping plan 🙂
I know sometimes we do as well but we try, it’s worth it. Thanks for your comment Juanita!
Thanks..I never thought about buying gift cards,,silly me lol..i will for christmas for sure
I made a calculator that allows you to compare a product from sdm to another store and see if what you earn in points is worth what you save in dollars at another store, it also allows for coupons. I think a lot of people will find this useful.
Agreed with the Shoppers Optimum Points program being very rewarding! I have noticed that although many things are more expensive, there are quite a few items in their flyer that are the same price or lower than other retailers such as milk, eggs, PC pop by the case,, Catelli Healthy Harvest pasta this week. And they offer the opportunity to use coupons printed from the web. I used to reward myself from their Boutique and buy myself jewelry, purses etc. but I saw the light and did some price comparison and now buy the things we use at home that normally I would buy from the grocery store.