top of page

🛍How to save thousands of $$/year doing your groceries at Shopper's Drug Mart


Shopper's Optimum Rewards has to be the best rewards program out there (by far), if you know what you're doing. What other store puts this much money back in your pocket from not only reward points towards free stuff, but great sale prices on everyday groceries at the same time! *Updated- I've posted my 5 most recent receipts, at the bottom of the page.

I've been using Optimum intently now for just over 2 years and have figured out a few tricks to really maximize on the program's benefits. I go once a week and always get everything I need on sale. I'll explain to you how easy it is to get great savings & accumulate $400 worth of free stuff every 3 months. Each year I get at least $1,600 back from Optimum. And I'm well on my way to doubling that amount this year.

*2 weeks ago I redeemed $800 worth of free stuff!

First thing you want to do is sign up for the program's emailed coupons at myoptimum.ca. Every week they will email you a bunch of coupons you can easily load to your Optimum card online. Yay! No need to give the cashier any coupons! The in-store transaction points will automatically be added to your account after every visit.

You may not get the really big coupons at first sign up. But just be patient and you'll see, the offers get better as you become an avid couponer. If they know you're going to use them, they'll keep sending more your way.

The best coupons you want to keep your eye out for - get 22,000 points when you spend $100, get 18,500 when you spend $75, get 16,000 when you spend $60 & 12,000 when you spend $50. These coupons will be emailed to you almost every week and are usually to be used on a specific day. As an added bonus, Shopper's Drug Mart will have an in-store promotion every 5-6 weeks for 'Get 18,500 when you spend $75'.

*I've never received close to this amount of points when shopping during 20x the points events. *

Another great thing Shopper's does- they keep track of your most popular purchased items & send you promotional coupons for these specific items. You're always getting coupons for stuff you buy!

TIP - If you don't like your coupons for the week, don't load them. They will send you better ones w/in a few days that they think you might prefer.

Before you go shopping ~ Take a quick peek at the online flyer to see what you need that's on sale and make a list. There's some really great deals to be had! Shopper's regular priced items can be somewhat more expensive then it's discounted counter-part/competitor, but when they do go on sale you're really getting a great deal! 98% of the time I only purchase items that are on sale. It would be silly not to, when everything goes on sale, all the time.

And I'm only touching on everyday grocery items. Think about how much other great stuff Shopper's sells, from electronics... to stationery... to beauty products...

TIP - If you can retain info. easily, add the totals in your head every time you add an item to your cart and don't go over too much what you need to spend. Remember you'll be back in a week, so some of your stuff can wait 'til then (especially if it's not on sale).

*Think about how quickly points add up if you make an effort to go to Shopper's once a week. I think it's totally worth while. 18,500 ($75) points x 5 visits = 92,500 points. So if you spend $375 in a month and a half, you get back $200 of it and then some (because don't forget you've also earned other product bonus points during this time). Wow all of those sale items you've been buying just got 53% cheaper!

Redeeming your points - I only redeem when they have 'Spend Your Points' events. You are allowed to redeem up to 95,000 points per transaction on any given day and this is always worth $170 on regular shopping days. During the 'Spend Your Points' promotion 95,000 points now gets you $200 worth of free stuff (you're getting an extra $30 for every $200). On my last trip I redeemed $800 worth of free stuff (that's an extra $120) so it's totally worth waiting for. This promotion happens (on average) every 3-4 months and Shopper's will always send you an email to notify you in advance.

​When redeeming points, do the same (as I mentioned above), and make a list of sale items you need before going. There's still a lot of great sales going on during this promotion. This way you're really maximizing on your annual savings. Though sometimes it's nice to splurge on that expensive bottle of perfume/cologne you've been dying to try since you smelled it in the last fashion magazine you read. After all, you've earned it.... and you have all this free money to spend!

ADDED BONUS: keep your eye out for manager's specials on close to expiration items. You'll see a big $ off coupon on the package. I once got yogurt for free because it was on sale for $1.99 and a few containers had $2 off coupons on them. We ate a lot of yogurt for the rest of the week that week. Good thing the kids & I love it for breakfast 😉. But my new rule of thumb (anywhere I go) is, always grab refrigerated items from the back of the fridge. Too many times I've purchased something that didn't last 'til it's expired date because these are the items that (more often then not), get left out at the cashier desk for an indefinite period of time.

ANOTHER ADDED BONUS: Shopper's is part of SCOP, which stands for the Scanning Code of Practice. If the item you're purchasing isn't scanning the same price as the sale price on the shelf, you'll receive this item for free, if it's value is less then $10. If the item is more then $10 you get $10 off the discounted price. These mistakes happen all the time, so if you want even more free stuff (yes please!), check the cash-out screen to make sure your on-sale items come up SALE, always double check that the item is the one on the discounted tag (i.e. same brand products might only offer discount on a particular flavour and not the others. Or the item might have been misplaced when put back on the shelf) and ask nicely for your discount. The cashier WILL NOT point this out to you. Even after you've left, it's not too late to go back and get an adjustment.

Points balance as of July 4th, 2016

Thanks for stopping by!

bottom of page