Loblaw & Optimum points vs Empire & Scene+ points vs ?

MayorOfToronto wrote: ↑ I typically shop at No Frills and collect a ton of Optimum points using their weekly offers combined with the World Elite MasterCard (3%).

I decided to check out the FreshCo this week and noticed a lot of their items are slightly cheaper than No Frills and they have a better selection of produce.

The Scotia Gold card offers 6% back at Empire stores for a $120 annual fee.


I'm curious what RFD prefers.

PointsHubby wrote: ↑ Honestly …

Three very different programs …
Providing different types of rewards
And how to gain from them

So it’s like comparing …
Apples to Oranges to Bananas

Domestic, Foreign, Exotic

PC Optimum … really only good at PCO Affiliated Retailers
PC+ Loblaws Group - SDM - Esso
Great for day to day expenses

Scene+ … a larger group of Partners
Points can be used for Entertainment, Dining, Groceries, etc

Airmiles … an even larger group of Partners
Some InStore, a lot on line affiliates
Points are best used for Travel
But can also be redeemed for stuff in just about every category imaginable
And then some …
Once you take into account the Onyx Personal Shopper
(One guy even redeemed for a car )

The only thing these 3 have in common the way you’ve asked
Is they all have grocery store partners

If your question is actually about saving money on groceries
Then the answer is simple

It’s KNOW YOUR PRICES
And buy only on sale when items are at their lowest price mark in a Retailers Low - Medium - High cycle

Use points programs to augment those savings
By STACKING promos / offer opportunities on top of sales

But what it really looks to me like what you are asking is about is Credit Cards
That’s a whole other ball of wax
And why RFD has a FORUM that’s just dedicated to analyzing them
And figuring out which is a better deal than others

credit-cards-f189/

And … it may not be any of them tied to these Reward Programs

Kiraly wrote: ↑ This is a minority opinion around here, but I think the PCO program sucks. On your grocery spending, you get points on only the tiny amount of items in your weekly personal offers list. On everything else you buy, you get zilch. In my last two months of spending more than $500 at No Frills, I've earned a grand total of 500 points worth 50¢. A rather insulting 0.1% return. Sure you can rack up huge numbers of points by buying things you wouldn't otherwise buy, just because there is a points promotion on them. But that's not saving you money, it's a trick to get you to spend more.

Loyalty programs at other places might have a higher return, but that is cancelled out by the stores being more expensive.

I continue to shop at No Frills because it has the best loyalty program of all: LOWER PRICES. Any retailer that can consistently give me the best price will win my loyalty, especially if they can do it without points or apps or other silly games.

MayorOfToronto wrote: ↑ The PC WE would give you 3% return on top of any weekly Optimum offers if you quality (80k income). The regular PC card offers 1% and the World offers 2%.

I used to typically get more than 3% when combining the WE card with weekly offers. Sometimes even up to 10% back. Or I'd use their special spend and earn events such as 40x at Shoppers.

Kiraly wrote: ↑ This is a minority opinion around here, but I think the PCO program sucks. On your grocery spending, you get points on only the tiny amount of items in your weekly personal offers list. On everything else you buy, you get zilch. In my last two months of spending more than $500 at No Frills, I've earned a grand total of 500 points worth 50¢. A rather insulting 0.1% return. Sure you can rack up huge numbers of points by buying things you wouldn't otherwise buy, just because there is a points promotion on them. But that's not saving you money, it's a trick to get you to spend more.

Loyalty programs at other places might have a higher return, but that is cancelled out by the stores being more expensive.

I continue to shop at No Frills because it has the best loyalty program of all: LOWER PRICES. Any retailer that can consistently give me the best price will win my loyalty, especially if they can do it without points or apps or other silly games.

Jon Lai wrote: ↑ PCO is a SDM-led program. Use it when there are bonus points but otherwise I don't consider there being a valid grocery loyalty program. Using PCO at grocery stores is not the RFD way to use it.