PC Optimum is the ultimate points card. It allows you to earn points on many items and on deals in the Loblaws banner stores. However, the PC Points program can be intimidating.
LET’S TRY AND TAKE SOME OF THE GUESSWORK OUT OF THE PROGRAM BY GOING THROUGH THE MAIN PARTS OF THE ENTIRE PROGRAM
To make the most out of the PC Optimum program, you need to understand how all the parts of the system work.
The TEN (10) parts to USING & UNDERSTANDING the PC Optimum program are as follows (each step is broken down and detailed further down):
GET A CARD! Make sure you have a PC Optimum card. Make sure you have the app loaded on your phone.
SCAN YOUR CARD! Scan your card each time you shop and earn points at all Loblaws banner stores. All stores that partake in the PC Optimum program are listed below.
SAVE YOUR OFFERS! On Wednesdays, save the offers you want for the following shopping week. On Thursdays, your saved offers and any new offers will be loaded on your app for viewing and use. (See guidelines below on how to save the best offers each week)
TYPES OF OFFERS! Know the difference between personal offers, flyer offers, store specific offers, and in-store offers can make a huge difference in racking up points.
STACKING POINTS! Combining and stacking PC offers to maximize your points earned.
USING COUPONS ON POINTS OFFERS! How to use coupons and how they affect your points.
SHOPPERS DRUG MART POINTS SYSTEM! How is it different than a regular Loblaws banner store and what to understand before shopping there.
EARN POINTS AT ESSO GAS STATIONS! If you’re not scanning your card when you fill up at Esso, isn’t it time you did?
POINT VALUES! What are points worth? Spending points and redeeming points when there’s a points event. Knowing the value of points.
POINTS INQUIRY! When you don’t get the points you should have received.
PART 1 – WHERE TO GET A PC OPTIMUM CARD AND WHERE TO GET THE PC OPTIMUM APP
You can get a PC Optimum card at any one of over 2500 Loblaws banner store locations in Canada. Simply ask a cashier for one at checkout. To load the app on your phone, go to the APPLE PLAY STORE or GOOGLE PLAY AND search for the PC Optimum app to download it to your phone.
PART 2 – SCAN YOUR CARD EACH TIME YOU SHOP
Each time you shop at a Loblaws banner store, scan your card at checkout. While it doesn’t matter if you scan it at the start or end of the transaction, it must be scanned at some point during the transaction to earn points.
You never earn points on taxes and you’re always responsible for the taxes. There is no way to reduce them when shopping (unless you have a status card).
PART 3 – SAVE YOUR PC OPTIMUM OFFERS FOR NEXT WEEK – YOUR PERSONAL OFFERS
PC Optimum offers on your phone app are mostly made up of personal offers. These are different for everyone. You will have store offers as well but this section deals with the personal offers. You cannot save or push forward store offers.
Each Wednesday, you can push forward four (4) offers to save until the following week.
You want to save the best offers each week to maximize your savings. By combining offers, sales and coupons is always the best way to get stuff cheap or free and be able to stock up on items.
You can only save personal offers. You cannot save (or push forward) store offers, store-specific or any offers other than personal offers.
Go through your offers. To save an offer, slide the offer to the left with your finger. It might take a bit of practice to get the hang of it, but it’s pretty simple once you get it. Once you swipe the offer to the left, it will show up like the picture below. Tap on ‘Save for next week’ and the offer will be saved for you.
It’s a good idea to go through the flyers for the coming week so you can try to combine points offers with the sales in the flyers. You might find an item coming up on sale or an additional points offer for it which means you can stack offers. We’ll talk more about STACKING later.
PART 3 – KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERSONAL OFFERS, INSTORE OFFERS, STORE SPECIFIC OFFERS, AND FLYER OFFERS
The PC Optimum app and program have several types of offers and they all act very differently when using them. This is the tricky part.
There are personal offers, instore offers, specific store offers, and flyer offers. This section explains all types of offers.
Sometimes the instore offers on your app and the flyer offers are the same points offers. They do not double the points on these. It takes a bit of time to know the difference but there are some of these offers that are stackable. More on stacking later.
PERSONAL OFFERS
Personal offers will show up on your weekly app only. As previously discussed above, you can push forward four (4) offers each week to the following shopping week.
Personal offers can only be used once and then they disappear for use off your app. The key to using personal offers is to make them count. Combine them with coupons or other instore or flyer offers so that you maximize your points and your savings. Also, buy what you need of something with a personal offer because you won’t be able to use that offer again during the shopping week, and not until it’s given to you again on the app.
Here are some examples of personal offers. These offers will be in your PC App and new ones will appear each week on Thursdays. 4 offers can be saved each week on Wednesdays for the upcoming shopping week.
IN-STORE OFFERS
In-store offers allow you to shop many times for the item during the offer period and rack up points. This combined with a personal offer can help the points on your account add up quickly in some cases. Instore offers are not to be confused with store specific offers.
In-store offers might also be found in specific stores, or not in the flyer. You might find a great deal with a points offer in the store when shopping. This is an in-store offer also. And again, with this type of offer, you can use it over and over until it’s removed from display, or where the product is located.
Here are a few examples of In-store offers. One set is for No Frills and one is for Zehrs. Both stores are in my area and both sets of offers including others came in this past week.
You can combine in-store offers, flyer offers, and personal offers to stack points.
Here’s an example of stacking a flyer and a No Frills in-store offer. $1 off Axe products is showing on the app as a No Frills instore offer. There is also an offer in the flyer to earn 500 points wub (when you buy) Axe. 500 points = $.50, plus it’s on sale in the flyer for $4.49. Now, if I have a coupon for Axe, let’s say for $1 off ANY Axe product, then I would save $1 on a coupon, $1 on the instore offer and $.50 back in points, which equals $2.50 off basically. Now that $4.49 Axe is ONLY $1.99.
STORE SPECIFIC OFFERS
Store specific offers are offers on your app for specific stores in your area. They may or may not be the same deals as on the local flyer. Most times they are additional offers that are provided to PC members during a specific shopping period. It’s a good idea to combine and stack any offers you can.
Here is an example of store specific offers. When a store is noted above the offer, the offer is only good at that specific store. It can be in any area or province but must be that store. In this case, it’s No Frills.
FLYER OFFERS
Flyer offers are offers that appear in the weekly flyer. They might be points offers or PC Optimum member offers. Both are excellent ways to save money.
This makes a big difference when you have an item on your app which has two personal offers. This can happen sometimes. Even with one personal offer and a flyer offer, you can stack those two offers together. Also, combined with a coupon and you might just get something for very little or maybe even free. It does happen.
Be careful that you don’t confuse flyer offers with instore offers which are sometimes the same offer (confusing, I know)
Here are some examples of flyer offers. You’ll see two price discounts for being an Optimum member (shown with purple arrows) and three points offers if you buy a specific item (shown with blue arrows).
PART 5 – COMBINING AND STACKING OFFERS
Once you get a good handle on how to get points, it’s an easy transition to combining and stacking points. You might have been getting points all along that were ‘extra’ points and you weren’t sure why you got them. There are a lot of different offers at play sometimes all at once that combine to give you points.
You can stack personal offers with flyer offers and instore offers. You can also combine store specific offers with personal offers.
Combining all the offers you get from instore, personal and store specific offers can add up to a decent number of points. And this is the best way to net free or really cheap products.
But, here’s the tricky part. If you’re going to use a personal offer, buy as many as you want the first time you shop for an item like this because the offer will be removed after one checkout when purchasing an item that has a personal offer. If it’s an instore or flyer points offer, you can shop for that item more than once, even do several transactions and the points should be awarded each time. Personal offers expire after one use, and instore, flyer, and store specific offers are usually multi-use.
Stacking works well when there is an in-store offer and a personal points offer which end up totaling the same amount as the product, making the product free. For example, there is a flyer or instore offer of 2000 points on a product, and you have a personal offer for 2000 points. The product you’re buying is $3.99. You’ll end up getting 4000 points on a $3.99 product, making it free, with 1 cent overage. 4000 points = $4.00. Mind you, it will be available for your next shop, not the one you’re currently doing.
It happens rarely, but a great time to buy something in separate transactions is when there is a flyer points offer, and sometimes you’ll notice a bonus shelf points offer (the store has offered an extra point offer for buying a specific item), which happens as the store might be trying to clear out overstock. If the point offers add up to let’s say $5 on each product you, you might want to do separate transactions of 2 each. Therefore buy 2, get 10,000 points, pay $10. Now you have 10,000 points to use on your next transaction. Do a second one, get 10,000 points again, use the 10k you got from the first transaction, making the 2 items you just bought, completely free, except for taxes if there are any. Or it can be a great time to buy 5 or 10 of something, pay for it, then close off the transaction and buy another 5 or 10 (separate transactions) so that by the time you’re done, you’ve netted a completely free shop for most of the items that you were able to get points on. It’s an easy process to learn once you’ve mastered the stacking and points system.
Stacking can work on most products, regular products and No Name Products. Most offers can be stacked/combined to maximize your points.
Here’s an example of how to stack two (2) offers together. Both of these are Zehrs offers which came in the app.
The first one is an offer to pay $3.99 for No Name paper towels.
The second offer is to spend $40 and get 4000 points. Although, I’d have to spend $40 on No Name products, it doesn’t take long to add up to $40 when you’re shopping.
Also, NN Sour Cream get 400 points ($.40) back on every $2 spent. And NN Broth, get 200 points ($.20) back on every $1 spent.
There are so many offers that you can stack, you simply have to watch for offers that you want to get, and check your flyer offers as well as your personal offers. You can also use coupons when you have them, one per item, and save even more money. You will need to know how to read coupons to use them correctly. To Understand How to Read Coupons, check out our Youtube tutorial HERE.
PART 6 – USING COUPONS ON POINTS OFFERS! How to use coupons and how they affect your points.
You can use coupons in combination with points offers, and all PC Optimum offers. And if you have coupons for the products you’re purchasing, it’s a great way to get something really cheap or even free. Sometimes you might find you get overage just by having the right combination of points offers and coupons.
By using coupons, you can reduce your total spent and still get the points on the full value pre-coupons entered.
In other words, if you buy a product worth $5, and you have an offer for 3000 points for the same product, plus you have a coupon for $2, then, you’ll pay $3 for the item and you’ll get back 3000 points which is $3.00 back in points. So, technically you got something for free. The 3000 earned points can be used on a future shop as long as you have enough to make 10,000 point increments. Points can only be redeemed in increments of 10,000 at a time, and up to 500,000 in one shop.
You will pay tax on the full value of the product before points and before coupons so always take that into account. You do not get points on the taxes, ever.
PART 7 – SHOPPERS DRUG MART POINTS SYSTEM! How is it different than a regular Loblaws banner store and what to understand before shopping there.
This section includes Shoppers Drug Mart® and Pharmaprix®.
There are two parts to understanding the SDM points system. One part is accumulating points as it’s different than the other Loblaws banner stores. The second part is spending points at SDM and the bonuses they offer to spend your points at SDM.
SDM has a unique system that some people find hard to navigate. If you understand the system, it helps to know when to shop, what to shop for and how to rack up points easily and pay very little for some shops.
SDM also has redemption weekends or days where they offer to give you extra points when you shop and spend your points. It happens more frequently at SDM than any of the other Loblaws banner stores, but you may receive offers for other stores on your app to spend points at any time and receive a bonus for doing so.
There are spend your points events and sometimes bonus or super spend your points events and both are different in the values they award shoppers who have accumulated points.
HERE’S ONE EXAMPLE OF A SPEND YOUR POINTS EVENT AND WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT ON AN EVENT SESSION
To understand the SDM system you need to know they’re different from the other Loblaws banner stores.
Earn 15 points on almost every dollar you spend at Shoppers Drug Mart® and Pharmaprix®.
Shoppers Drug Mart is the only store in the PC Optimum system where you automatically receive base points on the dollars you’ve spent. It’s an easy calculation, as you earn 15 points per dollar. Simply multiply your dollars spent, before taxes, by 15 to get your base points. For example, if you spend $20.00 before taxes, you multiply 20 x 15 for a total of 300 base points!
Base points alone are very minimal. You want to wait for the special offers that Shoppers Drug Mart often offers to get as many points as possible while spending as little as you can out of pocket.
There are two most common styles of offers from SDM each week are detailed below:
The first one is extra points per dollars spent, for example, get 20x the points when you spend $50. This means you have to spend $50 before taxes to get 20x the points. 20x the points on $50 would be 10,000 points. Plus, you would also get the base points of 15 points on the dollar. The total on $50 spent would be 10,750 points, plus any applicable personal points offers or instore offers that also increase your points total.
The second type of offer is a set amount of bonus points with your purchase (for example, receive 20,000 bonus points when you spend $50). To determine your points for this style of offer, you have to spend $50 before taxes are applied, and you would get 20,000 points, plus, the base points of 15 points on the dollar. The total on $50 spent would then be 20,750 points, plus any applicable personal points offers or instore offers that also increase your points total.
Check for in-store bonus points offered as well. In-store points offers will be advertised in their weekly sales flyers, or posted on the sale tags in store for specific items. They will be added to your total points earned separately; if you’re buying them while also earning a 20x special offer, they will not be multiplied by 20 as well.
Don’t forget to walk the aisles to check for clearance tags, or see if your store has a clearance section or bins. You can find some incredible deals when old stock is being cleared out for cheap, especially if you can match a coupon with them.
Items can often have manager’s stickers on them to mark them down further as well. Only the price after the manager’s sticker has been applied will count towards your final bill, but it’s a great way to stretch your purchase value.
If you have a PC Financial Mastercard, you can earn extra points paying with it as well. Instead of just 15 points per dollar spent at Shoppers Drug Mart, you’ll get those 15 base points PLUS an additional 10 points for a total of 25 points per dollar! Those bonus 10 points per dollar will be added to your account separately within a week. PC® Mastercard® cardholders can get up to 10% back in points in combination with the PC Optimum™ program!
When you get gas at Esso stations, you can earn points which can also help increase your point total. Don’t forget to scan your card when paying for your gas or car wash.
At Esso™ stations earn 10 points per litre and per $1 spent on eligible convenience and car wash purchases.
Redeem 4,000 points for 10￠ off per litre (max 40L in a single fill)
Redeem 10,000 points for any car wash package
PART 9 – POINT VALUES! UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH YOUR POINTS ARE WORTH
Earning points and spending points go hand in hand. If you’re earning them, there’s going to come a time where you will probably want to use them. Guard your points and always keep track of how and where you’re earning points which will help you know how to earn the most and where.
Points accumulate in different increments. Keep track of your points and when you have any amounts over 10,000 points you can use them to pay for your groceries. Points can only be redeemed in increments of 10,000. In other words, you can only cash in points in $10 amounts, $10, $20, $30, etc.
HERE IS AN EASY CHART TO READ ON OPTIMUM POINT VALUES
PART 10 – POINTS INQUIRY! When you don’t get the points you should have received.
Always check your receipt after shopping to ensure you got the points you should have. Also, it’s always a good idea to check it if you used any coupons, to ensure they were all taken off. And, let’s be honest, sometimes cashiers make mistakes. We’re all human. Even we make mistakes when calculating what points we should have received, so double check your math if something doesn’t look right to you.
If you have checked and still feel you’re missing points, you can do a points inquiry, on the PC website HERE, or on your PC OPTIMUM APP under your account which is located at the bottom of your phone screen. Simply fill in the blanks and detail the missing points and send it off.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PC OPTIMUM PROGRAM, YOU CAN CHECK THE FAQ (Frequently asked questions) HERE ON THE PC SITE.
