A new unified loyalty program for customers at Shoppers Drug Mart or any of Loblaw Companies Ltd.’s grocery stores will soon use a new, unified loyalty program that replaces Optimum and PC Plus points. It will kick start on Feb 1, 2018 under a new name PC Optimum.
This change comes more than three years after the grocery giant acquired the pharmacy chain and its in-house Shopper Optimum system.
Uwe Stueckmann, senior vice president of marketing called PC Optimum “the future of loyalty programs for Loblaw companies, harnessing both the power of PC Plus and Shoppers Optimum across the unified network of our stores coast to coast.”
Until the February 1st date, customers can keep collecting points as usual until their Optimum and/or Plus points will move to the new program at equal value. If a collector has $100 worth of Optimum points, they will receive $100 worth of PC Optimum points, for example.
Collectors will then use a single card or app and continue to earn points on money spent at Shoppers. They’ll also be able to earn points through personalized offers and in-store promotions at all stores, and by using the President’s Choice Financial MasterCard.
The new program will have an easy to remember system – with 10,000 points valued at $10, 20,000 points at $20 and so on to a maximum single transaction redemption of $500. Shoppers can use their reward money at any of Loblaw’s nearly 2,500 stores and the company’s websites.
Consumers will earn 50 per cent more points for almost every dollar spent at Shoppers Drug Mart locations to help account for the higher number of points needed for each redemption level. Under the current Optimum program, collectors earn 10 points for every $1 spent, but need 2,000 fewer points to buy $10 worth of goods, for example.
The changes will affect many people as more than 19 million active members make up the base of the two current programs, with at least 50 per cent of members enrolled in both.
After Loblaw acquired Shoppers in 2014 Jim Noteboom, senior vice-president of loyalty and consumer insights said consumers told the company they wanted one program rather than two separate ones because it would make their lives easier.
Other changes have recently taken place (Nov 1 of this year) with PC Financial when CIBC and Loblaw’s PC Financial announced they would end their nearly 20-year relationship.
In its place, CIBC launched Simplii Financial – a no-fee direct banking brand. In the breakup, savings, chequing and mortgage accounts went with Simplii, while MasterCard credit cards and the PC Plus points program remained with PC Financial.
The change means PC Financial debit card holders no longer earn PC points when using those cards.
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