PC Insiders Review – Is it worth it? Updated 2022

When I first published the Canadian grocery store comparisons, some readers pointed out the benefits of the PC Insiders subscription program. Since we have been doing more and more shopping at Superstore, the idea of earning more PC Optimum points was quite enticing. I began to wonder…Is the PC Insiders membership fee worth it? Below is my honest and unbiased PC Insiders review and whether PC Insiders is worth it.

After one year, here are some data points based on our family of four: 

  • We earned extra $320 with of PC Optimum points
  • Saved $146 in PC Express pickup fees
  • Saved 30 hours from shopping in the store
  • Received $40 worth in PC Insiders surprise gift box
  • $99 PC Travel credit 
  • A net benefit of $506 

Is the PC Insiders subscription worth it? After being a PC Insider for a year, I believe the answer is yes. My PC Insiders review is positive. However, Loblaws implemented some changes to the PC Insiders program in Oct 2020. Many of these changes are significant so I have updated this post to closely examine these changes and determine whether the PC Insiders membership is still worth it with these recent changes. 

If you are looking to sign up for PC Insiders, please use my referral code BL1611 to get 25,000 PC Optimum Points for free (an equivalent of $25) when you sign up for an annual subscription.

PC Insiders Benefits – Old vs. New

PC Insiders is a subscription based membership program. It is Loblaws’ answer to Costco’s membership program. The PC Insiders subscription program is available at the following stores: No Frills, Loblaws, Superstores, Shoppers Drug Mart, Zehrs, Extra Foods, Pharmaprix, Atlantic Superstore, valu-Mart, BloorStreet Market, Maxi, Independent, Fortinos, Provigo, and Joe Fresh.

Old PC Insiders Benefits

When you enroll in the PC Insiders program, you get many benefits as a PC Insider. The old PC Insider benefits are: 

  • $99 PC Travel credit via PC Travel website. Note: You only get this benefit if you are on the annual subscription.
  • Earn 200 PC Optimum Points per $1 spent on PC Organics products, Joe Fresh purchases, PC Black Label Collection purchases, all brands of baby diapers and formula, and all luxury beautyBOUTIQUE products on shoppersdrugmart.ca.
  • Free shipping at Joe Fresh and Shoppers Drug Mart
  • No pickup fees at PC Express. Without this PC Insider benefit, PC Express pickup would cost between $3 to $5, depending on the pickup time (i.e. $5 for busier time slots).
  • Exclusive offers on PC Insiders Collection
  • Exclusive PC Optimum offers
  • One surprise gift annually (with annual subscription only)

When you pay the $99 annual membership (plus tax), you would get a $99 PC Travel credit. In this case, you are almost breaking even. 

PC Insiders review

New PC Insiders Benefits 

PC Insiders program went through some major changes on October 8, 2020. As a result, the PC Insiders benefits are going to be quite different. The first big change is that the annual subscription fee will change from $99 to $119 (plus tax). The monthly subscription option is no longer available. The new PC Insiders benefits are: 

  • Earn 10% back in PC Optimum points on all over 12,000 PC products
  • Free PC Express pickup with priority time slots
  • Free shipping at Joe Fresh and Shoppers Drug Mart 
  • 10% back in points on all Joe Fresh purchases
  • 5% back in points on PC Travel bookings, including car rentals, hotel bookings, flights, and vacation packages
  • A Welcome Box featuring PC products (only for new PC Insiders members)
  • Exclusive inspirational contents: recipes, cooking tips, insightful videos, and more
  • Get the scoop on innovative new PC products and services and sneak peeks
  • Dedicated member care

Here’s a quick & easy comparison between PC Optimum vs. PC Insiders:

PC Optimum vs. PC Insiders comparison

As you can see, there are significant changes. Whether the PC Insiders membership fee is worth it will depend heavily on your shopping style as I will examine later.

PC Insiders - PC Brands

PC Travel Credit 

One thing to note is that you only get the PC Travel credit only if you subscribe for the annual PC Insiders program.

You can redeem the $99 PC Travel credit by booking something through PC Travel. You either use the travel credit or you lose it, since it cannot be transferred or refunded. The travel credit can be used for flights, hotels, car rentals, even cruises and vacation packages. If you plan to redeem the credit for hotels, the hotel stay has to be at least 3 nights. 

Note: Although my experience with PC Travel was positive, I have found that PC Travel prices are more expensive than other travel websites. There are also some restrictions when booking through PC Travel. For complex travel itineraries, I would be hesitant to book through PC Travel.

2021 Update: With the new changes to PC Insiders, the PC Travel Credit will no longer be available. Instead, PC Insiders will earn 5% PC Optimum points when booking through PC Travel.

PC Insiders surprise gift box

When we signed up for the PC Insiders membership, I was very curious about the annual PC Insiders surprise gift box. 

We received two surprise annual gift packages during the first year of being a PC Insider even though you’re supposed to get one only. The surprise gift packages contained PC Black Label products and a few recipes. 

After looking up these products online, I would estimate the value of each PC Insider surprise gift box at approximately $20. 

2021 Update: This benefit will now be called the Welcome Box and will only be shipped to new PC Insider members. If you’re renewing the membership, you won’t receive the Welcome Box. 

Free PC Express pickups

Mrs. T and I have been looking at Superstore’s online grocery shopping (PC Express) as a way to save time, but we didn’t want to pay for the $3 to $5 pickup fee every time.

As a PC Insider, PC Express pickups are free. We now order groceries online and then pick them up in-store at a time slot that is convenient for us. It is easy to select grocery items on the Superstore website. The website also displays the most frequently shopped items. Since we usually buy more or less the same things, we can quickly select the items we need and check out. It usually takes us less than five minutes to pick out everything we need, select a pickup time slot, and check out. 

When I arrive at Superstore, I would pull into a designated PC Express parking stall, call the PC Express number, give the representative the parking stall number, and have my groceries delivered right to my car within five minutes. If I want to redeem our PC Optimum points, I would let the representative know during the phone call, and he or she would take the amount off our bill. 

Overall, PC Express has been straightforward and simple. I had my doubts about online grocery shopping before, but I am now a true believer. Using the PC Express has saved me a lot of time because I no longer need to spend time walking around the store and pick up things that we need. 

After a year of PC Insiders membership, we saved $146 in PC Express pickup fees and approximately 30 hours. The time saving with PC Express alone makes the PC Insiders program worth every single penny.

2021 Update: Fortunately PC Express pickups remain to be free under the new PC Insiders program. 

Free delivery

As a PC Insider, you can get Joe Fresh and Shoppers Drug Mart products delivered for free. This can be a big benefit for those that shop frequently at Joe Fresh and Shoppers Drug Mart.

We don’t shop at Joe Fresh and Shoppers Drug Mart frequently so we haven’t taken advantage of the free delivery benefit.

2021 Update: The free delivery benefit continues but this may not benefit too many people. 

Maximizing PC Optimum Points

Every 10,000 PC Optimum Points is worth $10. You can redeem the points in $10 increments at checkout. PC Optimum Points are earned through targeted weekly offers and in-store weekly promotions.

To earn more points, you can apply for one of the no annual fee PC Mastercards. We have the PC Financial World Elite Mastercard which gives us 30 points for every $1 spent at participating stores or 45 points per $1 spent at Shoppers Drug Mart. You can also double up on the offers too, as you can see from my tweet below. Points do add up pretty quickly.

Twitter Status PC Insiders

Since I’m a math nerd, it’s becoming a fun game for me to figure out how to maximize PC Optimum Points each week.

PC Insiders Benefits Analysis

For me, the most intriguing part of PC Insiders is the increased earn rate of PC Optimum Points. In the last few years, we have been more mindful of our food consumption. As a result, we have been purchasing and consuming more and more organic products. Naturally, when we shop at Superstore, we have been purchasing more and more PC Organics products. 

Comparing prices between Costco and Superstore, the PC Organic products usually are very price competitive. The pricing gets even better when you consider all the PC Optimum points we can earn by combining weekly flyer offers, 3% back on the PC World Elite Mastercard, and the 20% extra points for being a PC Insider. 

For example, organic bananas are $0.87 per pound at both Costco and Superstore. If we add the extra PC Optimum points we could earn, it would mean the organic bananas cost $0.67 effectively. 

It is not always cheaper at Superstore though. For example, baby spinach cost $1.28 per 100g at Costco and $1.76 per 100g at Superstore. Even with the 20% and 3% extra PC Optimum earn rate, baby spinach would come out at $1.36 per 100g, slightly more expensive than Costco. In other words, we need to pick and choose which PC Organic products to purchase at Superstore. It is also important to check the weekly flyer offers.

After one year of PC Insiders subscription, we were able to earn extra PC Optimum points that worth $320. We could then use this money to redeem against our grocery bills. 

Therefore, our experience with the PC Insiders program has been extremely positive. I’m convinced that the PC Insiders program is worth it based on our grocery shopping habits. 

Changes to PC Insiders Benefits – An Analysis

Initially, I was not too pleased when I learned about the new PC Insiders program. However, I do understand why Loblaws wanted to make some changes to the PC Insiders program and perhaps make some small improvements. The old PC Insiders benefits were great, especially for new parents that needed diapers and baby formula, and people that purchase PC Organic products.

Note: For expecting parents and new parents, check out 20 Baby Freebies you can get in Canada. These freebies will save you a ton of money.

If we compare the old vs. new benefits, here are the biggest changes:

  • Subscription fee increased by $20 per year (plus taxes)
  • A reduction of earn rate from 20% to 10% for PC Organics, Joe Fresh, PC Black Label Collection purchases.
  • Removal of 20% PC Optimum earn rate on baby diapers and formula
  • Removal of 20% on all luxury beautyBOUTIQUE products on shoppersdrugmart.ca.
  • Earn 10% on all PC products, including PC, PC Organics, PC Black Label Collection, PC Blue Menu, PC Nutrition First, and PC Chef. -> New benefit
  • Welcome Box only applicable to new members.
  • 5% earn rate when using PC Travel -> New benefit

Whether you will earn more or less PC Optimum points with the new PC Insiders program depends on your shopping style. If you frequently buy PC products, then you may come out ahead with the new changes. 

For us, based on our one year shopping history, 7% of our purchases were Joe Fresh products and 93% of our purchases were PC Organic products. We rarely buy other PC products. We do buy No Name products occasionally and it’s really unfortunate that No Name products aren’t included under the PC Insiders benefits umbrella.

pc insiders review
As you can see we earned most of our points on PC Organic products

Parents are the biggest losers of new PC Insider changes. Parents that shop at Loblaws stores for baby diapers and formula will no longer earn 20% PC Optimum points. This is a huge blow. Under the new PC Insiders program, it would be way more worthwhile to purchase baby diapers and formula from Amazon, Walmart, or Costco. 

Another big change is the removal of the $99 PC Travel credit. Although my experience with PC Travel was positive, my overall review of PC Travel was not due to some of the PC Travel shortcomings. It seems that prices via PC Travel are generally more expensive than other travel booking websites. Therefore, I can see that the $99 PC Travel credit went unclaimed for many PC Insiders previously. 

While the new PC Insiders program offers a 5% earn rate for bookings made via PC Travel, I’d be hesitant to book any complex travel itineraries with PC Travel. 

Based on the old benefits and an earn rate of 20%, we earned 320,000 in PC Optimum points after one year of being PC Insiders. This is equivalent to $320 that we could redeem on grocery bills. Since the new program dropped the earn rate from 20% to 10%, that means we’d have earned 160,000 PC Optimum points or $160 based on the new PC Insiders benefits.

With the new annual membership fee of $119 plus tax ($133.28 for BC), that means we’d come out ahead by $26.72, not including the savings we’d have gotten from free PC Express pickups. 

I’d argue this dollar amount alone isn’t significant, but it certainly covered the cost of the new PC Insiders annual membership fee of $119. Since we’d still come out ahead, it makes sense for us to continue with the new PC Insiders program. This especially considering the time you may save by utilizing PC EXpress.

Based on the PC Insiders calculator, a family would need to buy $23 per week or $1,196 per year on PC Products to break even with the PC Insiders annual subscription fee (ignoring tax here). If a family spends $50 per week or $2,600 per year on PC Products, they would come out ahead by $141. So whether the PC Insiders program is worth it or not depends on whether you purchase many PC products or not.  

PC Insiders Review – The pros and cons of PC Insiders

After being a PC Insider for one year and renewing it for the second year, here are some of the pros and cons of the PC Insiders program. I’d like to mention this is my review of the PC Insiders program and these pros and cons of PC Insiders are purely my personal opinions. Your experience may vary based on your grocery shopping style. 

With the new PC Insiders program, I have decided to re-evaluate the pros and cons of the new PC Insiders program.

Pros

  • Earning 200 PC Optimum points per $1 spent on select brands like PC Organic products.
  • Free PC Express pickup for online grocery shopping.
  • The $99 travel credit pays for the annual membership fee itself.
  • Earn 100 PC Optimum points per $1 spent on all PC products. 

Cons

  • The extra 200 PC Optimum earn rate is only for a handful of brands. For example, we don’t shop baby formula and diapers anymore, so the extra earn rate on baby formula and diapers is no use for us. 
  • You may be able to find better rates than PC Travel. So this may prevent you from using the $99 travel credit. 
  • If you prefer shopping in the store yourself and do not take advantage of PC Express, then the free PC Express pickup isn’t of any value. 
  • If you don’t buy PC products regularly, the extra 10% earn rate may not be worth it. 

Who is the PC Insiders subscription program best suited for?

With the old PC Insiders program, I think the program is worth it and everyone can benefit from it. Given the current economic conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it makes some sense for Loblaws to review its PC Insiders program. But many of the existing PC Insider members certainly won’t be happy with the new changes. Who is the new PC Insiders subscription program best suited for? 

  • Buy organic food regularly. At 200 extra points for PC Organic products ($0.20 value), if you buy $500 worth of PC Organic products, you’d already get the value of the $99 annual membership. You’ll earn additional points for all future PC Organic purchases.
  • Want to save time and money by shopping for groceries online and picking up at the store. If you usually pick up during after work rush hours, you only need 20 PC Express pickups to get your annual $99 PC Insiders subscription worth it you need 24 PC Express pickup to get your annual $119 PC Insiders subscription worth it. That’s 2 PC Express pickup per month which should be quite easy to hit for the average Canadian family. 
  • Young families using baby diapers and formula for their newborns or toddlers. Baby and toddlers will go through a lot of disposable diapers. It’s nice to be able to earn extra points on this newborn & toddler essential item.
  • Occasionally purchase PC Black Label products 
  • Shop Joe Fresh and Shoppers Drug Mart and have things delivered for free. 
  • Buy PC products regularly. If you spend $23 per week on PC products ($1,196 per year), you’d break even (excluding tax). 

On the old PC Insiders program, we earned most of our points on PC Organic products. We also utilized PC Express pickup quite a bit to save time. So were very well suited for the PC Insiders program. This is probably the key reason why our experience with the PC Insiders program has been overwhelmingly positive. 

Is PC Insiders worth it? Depends on your shopping style. 

With the old PC Insiders program, we earned extra PC Optimum points worth $320, saved $146 in PC Express pickup fees, received approximately $40 values of surprise packages, and received the $99 PC Travel credit. This means we got a net benefit of $506, making the PC Insiders subscription well worth the money.

Our experience with PC Insiders has been extremely positive. We have been thoroughly pleased with PC Insiders and the extra benefits we have received. In fact, the experience is so positive, so we decided to renew our annual membership for another year. 

However, I was not too happy that Loblaws decided to change the PC Insiders program with a month’s notice to existing members. To make matters worse, the new program is a shadow of the former self. Many existing PC Insider members would not be happy with these new changes, especially those members that are new parents and rely on PC Insiders to earn extra PC Optimum points on baby diapers and formula or those members, like us, buy primarily PC Organic products. 

For me, I think these new changes were a big slap to the face to loyal Loblaws customers. Loblaws gave very short notice and would not provide any sort of grandfather terms to existing PC Insider members. Grandfathering the terms and old benefits would have been the least Loblaws could have done. Since we don’t regularly buy other PC products, the new PC Insiders program means our earn rate will reduce by 50%.

With the old program, we received $99 PC Travel credit, earned extra PC Optimum points worth $320, saved $146 in PC Express pickup fees, and got approximately $40 values of surprise packages during our one year PC Insider subscription. In other words, by being a PC Insider member, we were able to get a net benefit of $506, making the PC Insiders subscription well worth the money. But this analysis is based on the old/existing PC Insiders program.

If our grocery shopping style stays the same as the previous year, with the new PC Insiders program starting Oct 8, 2020, our PC Optimum earn rate will drop by 50%. This means that we’d earn about $160 PC Optimum points, save $146 in PC Express pickup fees, or a net benefit of $187

Assuming our grocery shopping style stays the same as the previous year. It is still worthwhile for us to continue being a PC Insider member.

With all that said, if you and your family frequently purchase PC products and utilize PC Express, then the new PC Insiders program is totally worth it. You’d only need to purchase $23 per week on PC products. For the average Canadian family, this shouldn’t be difficult to do. 

Want to join PC Insiders? Please use my referral code BL1611 to get 25,000 PC Optimum Points for free (an equivalent of $25) when you sign up for an annual subscription.

I hope you have found this PC Insiders review helpful in determining whether to become a member or not. Are you a PC Insider? What is your PC Insider experience? 

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43 thoughts on “PC Insiders Review – Is it worth it? Updated 2022”

  1. Hey Bob

    Can you check the code that you shared? When I entered the code that you have provided I got “Something isn’t right. This promo code doesn’t exist or has already expired.” error.

    Reply
  2. Its a nitmare. I signed up at 0458 on dec 20. I canceled at 0505 when i realized it was only for president choice items. since then i have been on the phone all day for 3 days. they have redirected me to various people and forwarded to specialist but they never did call. It also screwed up my points so instead of accumulating points. I ended up losing 30, 000 points from my first order.

    i dont buy president choice, nor travel or do online shop. I like to search around for deals and gather meals and snack ideas.

    so i was forced to pay 124 for a service i dont want.

    Reply
  3. Thanks so much for the detailed review! And the update – I wasn’t aware of the changes actually and when I looked into all the details about a year ago I was debating signing up or not, decided it wasn’t right for me cuz there was no pickup locations nearby and I’m a single without a vehicle so only Shoppers is close, and the suburb city I’m in only has No Frills but not close to me. But I got down a rabbit hole today when I went to check my PC offers for this week and saw the ad in the ap for the subscription as well as their PC money card – I succumbed to their click-bait to check it out which got me on a Google search to do some further research before reading too much further – and came across this article! So I thank you! it’s totally informative and I appreciate the update too with such an in-depth description of the changes and how they may possible affect the consumer and who most benefits from their subscription. Though…. I’m still undecided – what I’m really looking at now, is my local No Frills has express pick up with online ordering now so that might be totally worth it to get a friend to drive me to just pick up groceries quickly rather than have to arrange a ride or tag-a-long on someone else’s shopping trip just to get my own groceries – but on their time schedule. So we’ll see. I have to do some points adding cuz unfortunately NO Frills doesn’t do base pts like Shoppers. ‍♀️

    Reply
    • Btw – the symbol at the end of my comment was SUPPOSED to be the shrugging girl emoji but apparently it didn’t recognize that lol

      Reply
      • Hi Chantal,

        I’m glad you found this review useful. For us we have found the PC Insiders program worth it as I written in the article. Ultimately you need to decide yourself. The PC Express pickup is a game changer and makes grocery shopping much easier. 🙂

        Reply
  4. I became a member mostly for PC express pickup with “priority timeslots” These timeslots do not exist. Very disappointed.

    Reply
  5. Great analysis. Thank you for doing all the homework and sharing it, as well as for the promo/refereral code.
    Not sure how often I’d get the organic stuff since I get local farm box subscriptions and only shop at supermarkets to supplement in between deliveries and the greens during the winter months. However, just on the free PC Express pick-up is worthwhile for me in terms of the time savings, in the line-ups and in-store! Thanks again!

    Reply
    • Before signing up double check that your local stores do the express pick up. Our local Loblaws does but neither of our two closest No Frills stores do. So we can drive 5 mins each way to No Frills and do our own shopping or or drive 25 mins each way to the nearest NF that does express to do pick up. They don’t do PC delivery in our area either which is supposed to be another benefit.

      Reply
      • A very good point. The Superstore near our place didn’t have PC Pickup until about 2.5 years ago. Certainly wouldn’t want to drive 25 minutes each way to the nearest place that does express to pick up. That’d defeat the purpose of online order & pickup.

        Reply
  6. Thank you for the analysis. I just checked out what this travel credit is. If I have to book an annual hotel flight 1000 dollar package, it’s not worth it but just found out you could just book a cheap hotel in Quebec City or Toronto for a night or car rental for a day. Even during this covid time, if you are someone who rent a car or who does weekend getaway, it could be a great deal.

    Reply
  7. Thank you so much for this detailed review Bob! I have been a PC Insiders member since the start in Dec 2018. My total earnings on points and waived pick up fees is $1328.00 ! I always raked in the points just from my babys and toddlers formula and diapers. I am super disappointed in the change it is pitiful compared to what I used to earn. I will still continue with the program just for the PC Express waived pick up fees as you mentioned it saves so much time as well as more safe during the current pandemic. Other than that there isnt too much value to the program anymore. I find Shoppers Drug Mart to have alot more value and bonus point incentives so that’s good. Thanks again for detailing everything out as I had to google as I wasnt aware of the change and was curious why my points weren’t accumulating anymore. Your article laid it all out – thank you!

    Reply
    • Wow that’s great earning in terms of points! It’s too bad that they dropped points from baby formula and diapers but looks like if you get the PC brand, you’d still get points. PC Express is definitely a life saver for a busy family.

      Reply
  8. Thank-you for your analysis. I did the same for myself and have just cancelled my membership (effective Feb ’21) They say my membership discounts will exist until then but I gather at the, in my opinion, reduced version. I also was ticked with losing the $99 credit for PCtravel this covid year. I have had excellent results with PCTravel, and they will price match so despite seeing a higher price they will match (same flight/hotel/date etc).
    They have lost me as a loyal PCInsider…..I prefer to shop in the store, I bought PCOrganics and occasionally Joe Fresh so the new formula is not aimed at me nor is it aimed at those with babies.

    I have my choice of stores; nearby NoFrills, Loblaws, Freshco and Foodland as well as cool ethnic groceries. For the last couple of years I have rarely shopped anywhere but the Loblaws banner stores due to the points on PCInsiders but no more. Weston blew it! I even was on the PC Insider panel to answer questions about the new program and I guess I was in the minority or they just ignored the data.

    Reply
  9. My biggest disappointment is the fact that not all stores are created equally. We signed up for the program to take advantage of the free PC Express service at our store. We used the service religiously for about 3 months (we have very young kids, shopping can be hard). Our order was almost never correct. Missing items all the time, get other people’s orders, every week was something new. Even going to our pick up time at the right time, having to wait 20 minutes with no other cars waiting is ridiculous. The frustration has mounted to the point that we have spoken to managers in multiple occasions and now it’s just easier to shop in store, despite the benefit of free grocery pick up. Rural communities definitely do no have the luxury of good PC Express service.

    Reply
    • Hmm interesting, we’ve had pretty good experience with PC Express pickup from the Superstore near us. That’s really disappointing to get other people’s orders or having missing items. Did you check off substitution?

      Reply
  10. They have gone and changed the program entirely now so for many of us who signed up this year based on the old program the new “benefits” seem more like a bait and switch. For instance we have a Loblaws, shoppers Drugmart and a City market in walking distance and when we renewed our annual subscription valid through April 2021 we had an 18 month old and a baby in the way. The 20% back for diapers and formula made them less expensive Walmart and Amazon (despite both delivering right to my door). It was why we joined the program. 20% for organic made baby food a little less but we are ok with just regular produce. Now neither benefit (diapers or formula) is part of the program changes set to start in a month. Never got to use my travel credit due to Covid. Would be nice if they honoured they’re member benefits through to the end of the subscription period for existing members. While I feel I’ve fallen for a bait and switch I feel better knowing that they won’t be getting the $1000/year I spend in store on diapers alone, that business will be going to Amazon and Walmart now.

    Reply
    • Hi Kathryn,

      Thanks for pointing this out. I did see that email a few days ago and I was not happy at all about the changes. I’ve been working on updating this post to reflect the changes.

      The 20% back on diapers and formula has been a great deals for parents. Many people will decide to cancel their membership because of the removal of the benefits for sure.

      We typically only buy PC Organic products so reducing from 20% to 10% is a bit reduction in earning power. We’ll have to recalculate and see if it makes sense to continue with PC Insiders.

      Reply
  11. I reserved and completed a flight through the PC Travel website, but PC Insider refused to honour their deal as booking with them is not enough. After bouncing telephone calls from PC Travel to PC Insider (which are different siloed corporations). They admitted that I made a mistake by not calling the correct division within the company. The manager that called me back allowed to allow me to reserve a future flight during COVID-19. Meaning PC Insider management refused to honour their $99 benefit.

    Reply
  12. You can save more money by price matching and getting points, this can save you more money just use your phone to look up prices or flyer.

    Reply
  13. I think something has changed recently.
    In our family we have two separate accounts.
    My wife only has a PC Express account. I also have a PC Insiders account.
    Since about one month my wife still gets email offers like e.g.: “Shop groceries with PC Express online grocery pickup and get $10 OFF your order of $100 or more.”
    I, as a PC Insiders member don’t receive these emails anymore. If my suspicion is true and this practice of Lowblaws continues it is a significant loss of discount.
    I wonder what would happen if I use her discount codes at checkout. Have not tried that yet.

    Reply
  14. Hi, I just wanted to clarify that in the in the fine print it says that points earned through the PC insiders program “may not be combined with any in-store, online or personalized bonus points offers on the same purchase” rather “you would receive either your PC Insiders points OR the in-store, online or personalized bonus points offer, whichever is the greater number of points, but not both”.

    Reply
    • Hi Heather,

      Hmm that’s not what we have experience so far. We’ve been getting in-store, online, or personalized weekly offers and the additional points from PC Insiders program (i.e. buying PC Organic products).

      For example, this week we have personal offer for bananas where we’d get 200 points ofr $1 spend. I went to Superstore and purchased $7 worth of organic banana. When I checked on the app I got:
      1,400 PC Optimum points – 200 points for every $1 spent on banana
      1,400 PC Optimum points – 200 points for every $1 spent on PC Insiders PC Organics

      Reply
  15. Been working with Superstore for almost a decade so I obviously know about PC Insiders. But to be honest, I was also very hesitant to subscribe as I didn’t want to pay extra to get more points, especially that I also have membership with Costco. I feel like I’m spending so much on memberships and the like. So even if I have 2 little ones and I’m always being told I’d get savings on baby stuff with PC Insiders, I didn’t want to consider. Not until today when I get an offer of one month free subscription. But before I went online and enroll, I check out for some reviews and came across your blog. All pros (and cons) are explained well so instead of taking advantage pf the free one month subscription, I went straight to annual. I used your referral code! I thank you so much for that. $24 of savings is absolutely a big thing. Can’t wait to earn points on my diaper purchases. Wink wink.

    Reply
  16. I’m still holding out on a free offer, it irritates me that they only provide the offer to some and not others for the free annual membership lol. I haven’t ever purchased any black label stuff, but I do buy PC Organics toddler snacks etc. often. Smart that they are doing a referral program now, Loblaw’s is getting pretty good with their marketing.

    Reply
    • I guess we got lucky. Seems that if you have one of the PC credit cards, you are more likely to get offers. We’ve gotten like 30,000 points just for having the PC credit cards. Can’t complain. 🙂

      Reply
  17. Good Article. We don’t have a Superstore anywhere near us so I’m stuck with Airmiles. I like how you have optimized the points program using the credit card, and taking advantage of the promos. I’m impressed with the PC Express pickup, I didn’t even know that was a thing! Considering how much time I’ve spent standing in line, that’s a huge time value savings. Our points game is to get more points than the dollar total we spend. I don’t advocate for spending just to get points, but I’m all about stocking up on a staple item if there’s a great points offer.

    Reply
    • We were lucky that a Superstore is nearby us. I don’t think it’s worth it to shop at Shoppers as things are more expensive there. The PC Optimum points do add up quickly if you optimize the program with credit card, weekly promos, personal promos, and PC Insiders. The PC Express pickup has been a great experience so far.

      Reply
  18. Excellent article, as always! Thank you for your opinion! I’m a PC Insiders member since december and I think it’s entirely worth it for the time I save not doing the grocery… 😉

    Reply
  19. You have a code, clearly a biased review.
    We’ve seen no increase in points and buying organic and black label products are more money, of course you earned $55 but it’s prob what you ended up paying indifference.
    And did you really need anything black label
    It’s all overpriced. Travel voucher is a great incentive but no thanks.
    Are reward box was rather disappointing.
    They sent us cake and cookie mixes that required us to purchase more items to make.

    Reply
    • First of all, I can careless whether you sign up with my referral code or not. I put the code in there to save readers 25% when they sign up. Yes, I get 10,000 referral points but if I didn’t get any referral points, I’d still provide the code so readers can save money when they sign up.

      And no, this is NOT a biased review in any way. I provided an honest review on how I feel about the PC Insiders program. If by providing a code in the review makes it biased, that’s your opinion. I’m sure majority of the readers do not share the same belief as you.

      Second, as stated in the review, we have been buying PC Organic products already, so signing up PC Insiders means we’d earn additional points (we have only purchased Black label and Joe Fresh products occasionally). If you aren’t buying these products that offer 200 points per every $1 spend, then there’s really no point for you to sign up for the PC Insider program.

      Reply
    • Chris Wentworth,
      I fully agree with Bob. If you regularly read the blog you will found out that he is has a good point. Not that kind of
      person who will try to take advantage for a couple of miserable dollars. He would rather help you.

      Reply

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