shopper's drug mart $10 off of $40 june 22-28

in the realm of points and things, i came across shopper's drug mart's $10 off of $40 (as found on smartcanucks). it's good from jun 22-28. normally, their prices aren't that competitive, unless they have deals like this. they have their own shopping program, shopper's optimum, which may be worth mentioning to help bring costs down. their base program is as such:

• 10 points per $ spent
• one redeems in tiers, such that the more you redeem, the higher the return is.
• 8,000 pts = $10 rebate (i.e., spent $800 for $10 back, or a 1.25% return)
• 95,000 pts = $170 rebate (i.e., spend $9,500, get $170 back, or a 1.79% return)
• there are almost weekly bonuses, whereby spending a certain amount gets you either a set large amount of points, or a high points multiplier. other weeks, they increase the value of your points, such that redeeming points will give you higher rewards (e.g., spend 95,000 points, get $195 back)
• during a 20x the points event, your potential return can be as high as 35% (1.79% x 20) 

there were a few things that i would consistently buy from there:

• supplies for my braces -- i found that nowhere else would sell threading floss and dental wax
• toothbrushes and toothpaste -- usually colgate products (85mL toothpaste, soft single toothbrushes) would be sold for $1 each. i would generally combine this with the 20x the points events ... meaning i would be coming out with a lot of toothbrushes and boxes of toothpaste

otherwise, their prices were too high to justify a mere 1.79% return (unless it was that 20x the points event).

however, i recently started playing around with my scotia bank gold amex card. it gives 4% return on gas, grocery, dining, and entertainment. drug stores are not a part of that higher earning. so that's why you buy shoppers' gift cards from petro-canada. not only do you get the 4% return, but you also get 20 petro-points per dollar (which i kind of hinted about its potential and versatility here -- see the portion on the sears' mastercard). 20 petro-points is equivalent to a minimum of 2% back in travel, or 2 cathay pacific asia miles, which is worth anywhere from 2-5c each. furthermore, purchases made by gift card also earn shoppers optimum points. so the lesson: you should never pay directly at shoppers drug mart when you can buy a gift card first from somewhere else.

so if you combine the petro-points and the additional bonus that you get from your credit card by shopping at a gas station (2% above your regular no-fee cash back card), then that's an additional 4-12% off. and add that to this $10 off $40 coupon, which is essentially 25% off, shopper's may be quite competitive after all.