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Sandra Phillips – Smart Shopping
By
Peter Kerr
“I came to Montreal for love – what else could get a girl
to leave New York?” Sandra answers my opening question as to how
she came to here from her native New York. And to second question about
the origins of Smart Shopping Montreal… “Because I was a
New York girl – I always knew you could get a better price.”
| I’m visiting with Sandra
Phillips, creator and author of Smart Shopping Montreal, and now also
working in partnership with her husband Stan Posner on Drive I-95, a
comprehensive exit-by-exit guide to Interstate I-95 from Boston to
Miami. Smart Shopping is a long-time best seller, and has helped Sandra
become the “Shopping Guru” in Montreal, and also an expert consulted by
national media for stories relating to shopping – such as cross-border
commerce. I’m about to learn that Sandra is a very astute marketer, and
that much of her success is due to her own creative thinking and plain
old-fashioned hard work. |
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Sandra grew up in New York City, in a
creative and happy household. “My Dad was in show business. He made
sets and props for Broadway production, TV shows and commercials, and
movies. When I went to visit Daddy at work – I’d get to meet Mary
Martin, Henry Fonda, Alan Alda, Dustin Hoffman, and when I visited the
Sesame Street set - I met Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch – the whole gang!
I have a photo of Big Bird with one of his feathers attached to the
frame.” Show business is not secure and Sandra’s father usually worked
two jobs – just in case one folded because of poor ratings or low
theatre attendance. “In the early days of TV, my Dad had to figure out
how to make things happen for the camera.” Sandra shows me a Cuckoo
clock in their dining room; “Dad made this for Sesame Street. The clock
had to fly apart in all directions, but it had to be put back together
for other scenes. He engineered a complex series of threads and pulleys
to make the clock fly apart for the camera. Now they teach the stuff he
invented in film and stage production schools.” Sandra inherited her
father’s creative ingenuity, and it would benefit her greatly…
Sandra
went on to obtain a Master’s degree in Fine Arts education, and became
a high school art teacher in New York. Along the way, she met Stan
Posner, a Montreal actuary and computer consultant. It was a second
marriage for both, and each brought a child with them, and the couple
also had another, making it a 3 boy household.
“So now I’m in
Montreal, a city I don’t really know, with 2 kids in school and a
pre-schooler. I became involved as a volunteer, partly as a way to meet
people.” |
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“I belonged to a charitable organization here in
Montreal, and I was in charge of arranging for speakers. I heard about
a lady who had written a pamphlet about some place called Chabanel
Street, and asked her to speak at one of our meetings.” It would be a
fortuitous meeting…
“Nes Welham had produced a pamphlet for
the factory stores on Chabanel, and she had taken it as far as she
wanted. She was interested in selling the rights, and we felt it was
something I could do and still be there for my children when they came
home from school”. Sandra made the decision to go ahead and by the
right from Nes. “Nes was very helpful and we’re still friends today.”
“Within
two weeks of buying the pamphlet, I was asked to go on CJAD with
Melanie King. That was in 1986 – And I’ve been a regular for the past
22 years.”
“I had a 2 ½ year-old and a pamphlet – and I knew I
wanted to make it bigger. I’m not from here, so I didn’t have any
preconceived notions about not going to the East End. I went anywhere
and everywhere where I could find a better price for something. My
territory went from Beaconsfield to Anjou, and from the 440 in Laval to
Taschereau Boulevard on the South Shore.”
Sandra enlisted
everyone she met as potential resources. “People love to tell you about
their good deals – and where they got them.” Sometimes it involved a
bit of creativity; “When I was sitting in a doctor’s office – I’d ask
the nurse where she got her uniform.” |
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“I had been gathering
all this information, and now it was getting time to produce the book.”
At this time – it was the book, one, once, a single edition. Sandra had
no idea or plan to turn Smart Shopping Montreal into the one-woman
industry that it would become.
It was time for some financing in
order to print the book. “I had learned that the best financial returns
came from self-publishing – so that was the route I wanted to take. I
met with my bank manager, and she became very excited about the
project. It may have been partly because we were both women. She saw
the merit in the business, and gave me a line of credit.”
“We
printed 5000 copies, and now I have to market myself and the book. I
was comfortable doing this – partly because of my background as a New
Yorker (we’re not shy!). I went on the radio, a spoke at ladies’ clubs,
charitable organizations - anywhere where they needed a speaker. It was
hugely popular because everyone likes to shop!”
“The book stores
were wonderful to me. Out of ignorance, I’d go to the stores and
introduce myself, explaining that I was self-published.” Sandra’s
unique approach proved to be the right one. “It was the best thing I
could have done. They became my best salespeople, often setting up
counter displays close to the cash register, and recommending Smart
Shopping Montreal as a gift.”
Sandra sold all 5000 copies of
in 3 months, an incredible feat in a country where a national
best-seller is the same number – and Sandra did it in Montreal. “The
books were all sold, but there was no money. The stores pay in 120
days, but we needed to print more to satisfy demand and maintain the
momentum.” Sandra negotiated with her printer and the bank; and another
print run was ordered. The fact that Smart Shopping Montreal was a
runaway success and the author was rapidly becoming a media personality
helped the process.
Sandra was basking in the glow of her
success when Mr. Benjamin of Benjamin News, her book distributor asked
about ‘next year’s edition’. He knew a good thing, and he wanted to be
able to go into the market with an updated version the following year.
“It had never occurred to me – I had been so focused on producing the
first one and then promoting it. That’s how I began producing it every
other year, one year in English and the next in French.”
Smart
Shopping Montreal is a Best Seller every year, whether in French or
English. For one extended period, the book was on the Best Seller list
for 69 consecutive weeks. Ever confident, Sandra appears regularly on
French TV and Radio with her New York accented French. “There are
200,000 new books published every year in North America, and most end
up in remainder bins or being recycled. So I’m especially proud of
Smart Shopping Montreal.”
Shopping is a major part of North
American life – and it makes sense that a shopping expert will gain
certain notoriety. Even more so when she is articulate, tele-genic and
self-assured. “Neil McKentie had a morning TV show on CFCF. I went on
and it went very well, so well that I was asked to appear on other
daytime magazine shows. CTV News hired me to do a segment on shopping
every two weeks, and that went on for 5 years. I became the ‘go-to’
person for national television items about shopping.”
Newsprint
would also play a role in promoting Sandra and her fledgling publishing
company. “I wrote a shopping column for The Montreal Daily News in 1988
and ’89. After that paper closed, I moved to The Gazette where I
published a weekly column for 15 years. The newspaper put me on
everyone’s breakfast table.”
All the media exposure made
Sandra a popular speaker for groups, clubs, libraries, and
associations. At her public appearances people would come forth with
their own “special place” and Sandra would go off and investigate.
“Even
while all this was going on – I ran my business from 8:30 am until 2:30
in the afternoon. I was home for my kids after school, and then I’d do
paper work after they went to bed.”
The Internet has enabled
Sandra to expand her business. “I have a Shlog – a shopping blog –
where I can tell people about hot sales, and new finds.
In the
mid 90’s Sandra began a second career in travel writing. “Stan came to
travel conferences with me as a spouse, and we met Dave Hunter who was
producing a driving guide called Driver I-75, for people driving from
Toronto to Tampa. 50% of the work to produce the guide is creating and
managing a computer data base – which is Stan’s expertise. Stan and
Dave got along very well, and we decided to make an arrangement with
Dave to use his model for a Drive I-95, which is the Interstate that
goes from Boston to Miami – and is the one that most Montrealers use.”
“One
of the biggest requirements – perhaps the biggest – is that we can
stand each other in the car for 10 to 12 hours a day. Stan takes care
of entering all the information, and it’s got to be right. Fortunately
his ‘math brain’ and computer business make him perfectly suited for
his part in preparing the book.” Sandra, with her sense of what people
will find interesting – looks after the writing.
“We go on the
road for 2 – 5 weeks; in the car by 9 am until 7 pm. We usually have
dinner with someone from the local Chamber of Commerce until 9pm, and
then we move all the cameras and computers into the motel around 9:30.”
With a sigh, “We then start writing up everything from that day around
10pm – and we literally collapse around midnight. And start all over
the next day.”
Now that they have books available, the
fact-finding trips also double as sales events. “We sell I-95 anywhere
- we’ve found that book stores aren’t necessarily the best places. We
sell in road side restaurants, knife stores, children’s museums, gas
stations, all kinds of places where people stop while they’re on the
road.”
Sandra and Stan do local television and radio appearances
while they are on the road, working n the next issue of Drive I-95. On
a recent trip they were asked by NBC’s Today Show to do a 3 minute
segment. The usual 20 minute pre-taping interview went on much longer
than normal, and Sandra asked why. The couple were happily surprised
when the NBC representatives told them that they were being considered
for a season reality TV show, with a camera crew following Sandra and
Stan as they made their way down I-95, interviewing their subjects and
compiling the next edition. In the final analysis, the show was not
produced – yet…
“We were delighted that our work would receive that
much attention from a national broadcaster to be considered for a show.
We’re confident that we’ll be on the air eventually with Drive I-95,
either with NBC or another network.”
Sandra Phillips and husband
Stan Posner have a bright future with Drive I-95, and they are looking
forward to expanding the business. What started out as a “…move for
love…” continues to be an enduring love story for a couple that manages
to balance work and marriage in one all-encompassing package. Happy
trails!
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