Here’s a little secret about Shoppers Drug Mart that you probably never knew! We’ve been discussing this on the Canadian Shopping Forum. You can very easily and legally double all the Shoppers Optimum Points you get at Shoppers Drug Mart 
Here’s the trick in 2 simple steps:
- Buy a Shoppers Drug Mart Gift Card and get points on buying the gift card
- Use the Shoppers Drug Mart Gift Card to buy anything at Shoppers and get points on your purchases AGAIN.
So here’s how this would work. You go and buy say a $100 (or $25 or whatever value) gift card. You hand the cashier your optimum card, she swipes it, you get 10 optimum points per $1 as usual so that’s 1000 optimum points. You then use your gift card as a cash card to pay for your future Shoppers Drug Mart purchases and you get another 1000 points from these purchases! So you’d be getting double the points all the time!
The nice thing about Shoppers Drug Mart’s Gift Card is that it’s like a Cash Card which means that you can use it on multiple purchases over many days and months so it’s not something you have to use at once or on one purchase.
Note that this strategy does not work on x10, x15, x20 or bonus optimum point days.
WOW! That is brilliant! Thanks for the heads up!
Good to know! Thanks
FAB!!!!!!!
And if you use your Shoppers Mastercard, you’ll get additional 15 points for every dollar spent!
That will give you a total of 2500 points for just purchasing the giftcard.
would this still work, if I reload a gift card I already have? or would the optimum points only be for when buying a new card.
Gold Jerry Gold!
Sure it still works on 20x point days. You just wind up with 21x points instead of 40x points as some eager people might think.
Just wanted to point out that most stores that offer gift cards, have the opportunity on their website to register your card so that you can get reimbursed if you happen to lose your card. I don’t know yet if Shoppers does but worth a look.
I do this all the time, but I do worry that they will catch on soon…
on another site it has already been reported that they have stopped giving points for gift certificates.
Nicole, last time I tried which was very recently it worked like a charm. The secret is to not just go get a gift card and openly say you want points. You need to buy something as well, maybe a box of Kleenex or something. In that case she will ask you for your optimum card
Nicole — I think they stopped giving points for other (3rd party) gift cards that they sell like iTunes, restaurants, cell phones and so on. The Optimum Points section of the website states clearly that you get points for purchasing SDM gift cards.
I am always so impressed by the ingenuity of the smart canucks here. Wish I had thought of doing this a lot earlier. All those points that I had missed out on =[
Thanks for sharing.
I called and was told that you only get points for purchasing the card, you don’t get points for redeeming the gift card.
WOW just read this post and the date that it was published. I started doing this a couple weeks ago!!
i’ve been telling my parents to do this AGES ago but they didn’t believe shoppers would allow such a method. here’s to proof that it actually works
I bought the SDM gift card today but did not get any points as the cashier said you do not get points when you buy it but when you redeem it you get the points.
Couldn’t the same be done when purchasing gas at Petro-Canada? The clerk would scan your Petro=Points card when purchasing a gift card, and you would swipe you Petro-Points card and pay with your gift card when you pump your gas.
I used to do this at Zellers, but then Zellers stopped giving points when you purchased a gift certficate (still certificates in those days!)
I bought a SDM gift card today as well and I got points for it. Bought it with another smaller item and the cashier swiped my Optimum card. later, used the gift card to buy another item and got points for the item again!
So you get points for buying the card, and you get points for using the card… is this STILL going on?
And can you use your giftcard on 20x days to get points? Or do you have to use regular money.
Because I have a $45 giftcard.
PM me please!
I just bought a gift card last night and i got points for buying the card! buying another card today to prepare for tomorrow!
Is there 20X points tomorrow for Canada Day..heard it but can’t read anywhere about it?
sooo… I’m a cosmetician @ SDM.
does this work for employees? .. I’m thinking no.
I just bought a SDM gift card this week and the clerk almost didn’t swipe my optimum card. She was mumbling someting under her breath about we’re not suppose to do that but she did it anyway lol…
This is old news. I’ve been doing it for years. There are tons of ways to get great value from Shoppers using the Optimum program.
You DO get Shoppers points when you buy a SDM gift card even if they tell you that you don’t get them to swipe your card…this happened to me and I complained to the company and got 1000 free points because they told me I did not get points for gift cards.
In December 2010, I purchased several gift cards (approx. $350-$400) and I was not allowed to get Optimum points for this purchase. She did swipe my card for a few other small things I bought, but my receipt reflected points from the small items only — not the gift cards.…
I said that I would go to Sobey’s next time and buy the gift cards there so I could get the Sobey’s points.…