One of my points earning strategies is to shop through online portals. Whether it be AAdvantage eShopping, Marriott’s ShopMyWay Mall, the Ultimate Rewards portal, etc., these places are a great place to maximize your rewards potential.
A great points portal shop closing is always sad, however. Especially one that’s so useful. Unfortunately, that is the case today, as I found out drugstore.com is closing on September 30, 2016.
I figured something was up when the strange messages began popping up on the site, like all sales being final from September 1 and on. It wasn’t until recently, today in-fact, that the real reason for the changes came to light. I actually found out not from the company itself, but Shoprunner, the 2-day shipping subscription service. The fact that drugstore is a Shoprunner site already makes it a great place to shop for convenience. However, it’s the rewards that makes drugstore really great.
Drugstore.com participated in practically all the portals. With Chase UltimateRewards, you’d earn 4pts/$. With AAdvantage eShopping, you got 3pts/$. But the best use, in my opinion, was through Marriott’s ShopMyWayMall, through which you’d earn 6pts/$.
For shoprunner customers, the minimum order amount to receive your free shipping is $25. And at 6pts/$, that means at minimum, each over would net you about 150 Marriott Rewards Points. Yeah, in the grand scheme of things, 150 points does NOTHING with Marriott, but every little bit helps. Besides, as of this writing, Marriott Rewards points earned through ANY means currently count towards lifetime elite status. Not only do you get points through portals with drugstore, but until about a month ago, drugstore would also give you a 5% reward on your purchase.
5% return on purchases, points through portals, the value for shopping at drugstore was already strong. Add to that making purchase on the right card, such as the Freedom Unlimited, and the value is even better. So even if prices were a little higher than else (sometimes the were, sometimes they weren’t) the site provided outstanding value. And that’s why I’m sadden by the loss of drugstore.com. A truly great points portal shop closing means even less value when shopping, at least for me. Especially from a site that sold everyday products that you’d often buy.
In all fairness, if your first news about this was from Shoprunner, you just haven’t been reading your emails and the news. This was announced back in July. On August 1st, I got the first (of many) emails from Drugstore.com telling me about how the rewards program was ending (including reminders as the days wound down to the last day to earn rewards last month). They also sent multiple emails explaining that all sales were going to be final starting 9/1 — and those emails included a link to a full explanation of the fact that Drugstore.com was closing. I say this not to be a jerk, but because it seemed unfair to me to paint it as though Drugstore.com was trying to slip quietly into the night. They certainly gave a lot of notice….and even in my very crowded “Promotions” tab in Gmail, the all caps PLEASE READ: IMPORTANT in their subject lines stood out enough for me.
Separately, I think that valuing 6 Marriott points higher than 4 UR points is some questionable math. Obviously this could be somewhat a matter of opinion and situation, but even at the 1.25cpp you could redeem URs for through the Chase travel portal before the CSR upped the game, you’d have to be getting nearly a cent per point out of your Marriott points to have them make more sense than choosing URs and just booking the room with your UR points (rather than using Marriott points at all). Unless you’re saving for a SW CP, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to choose Marriott points. That said, obviously there are some scenarios where you could probably do 1cpp or better with Marriott…I just find those to be few and far between. I think you’d nearly always be able to book the same room for fewer points using the UR travel portal. And then you additionally have the flexibility of transferring to Hyatt and perhaps saving even more points.
But, to each his own :-).
Nico, you’re likely right. I likely simply missed the e-mail from drugstore.com or it accidentally went to junk. It wasn’t my intent, though, to make it sound like they were trying to slip quietly into the night; rather, I’m simply lamenting the loss of a favorite retailer. And yup, UR points are more valuable for sure. At the same time, I’m gunning for MR lifetime elite status, so incremental earn makes a difference for me (even though slight). But that’s why I put the spend on my Freedom Unlimited. ?
British Airways Avios Gateway365 shopping portal has offered 8 to 10 Avios per $ for years on Drugstore plus bonuses at times. The real savings was free shipping with shop runner, no sales tax and no gas money going to the store.
Thanks for the info DaninMCI! Not an Avios member, so had no idea. That’s a really great deal! And yes, the shoprunner participation plus no sales taxes was probably the best part; it’s what I’ll miss most. Especially since you can get shoprunner membership free with Amex!