Shopping smart, shopping green

Sandra Phillips is no shopaholic

Kristine Berey

March 2009

Few people know as much about purchasing wisely as Sandra Phillips, known to many as Montreal’s “shopping guru.” Since summer 1986, she has combined her feminine intuition, hunting and gathering instincts and tireless footwork with a great dose of common sense, providing Montreal with its very own annual buyer’s bible, Smart Shopping in Montreal, updated every year.

“I learned at my mom’s knee,” she says of her early introduction to the art. However, she stumbled upon her vocation quite by accident.

As program director of a study group, she booked a speaker who talked about shopping-ops on one particular street. “She had a small stapled pamphlet about a word I had never heard – ‘Chabanel!’ ” This was a defining moment. When the opportunity to buy this tiny business came up, Phillips didn’t hesitate. “I knew nothing about writing or the book industry – so of course I said ‘yes’.”

She spent one year doing research to expand the information, armed with a map of Montreal and a kid filled stroller in tow. The rest is history. The book was an instant success, turning Phillips into a local celebrity – to her amazement. “When I first put it together, it never occurred to me that this was an ‘evergreen’ book,” she says. Since then, Phillips has appeared on radio, television and has written her own newspaper column. She currently dispenses retail advice through her blog, smartshoppingmontreal.com.

The project, directing consumers to the best deals in town, continues to be challenging. “I visit 1,500 stores and factories a year,” she says, adding that she does all of her investigations “undercover,” trying to appear as nondescript as possible. When “workshopping,” she looks at price, quality and service. “I have to capture the essence of an entire business in a single paragraph.” Surprisingly, when it comes to shopping, Phillips is a minimalist, believing that sometimes less is more. She operates by the old carpenter’s adage “measure twice, cut once,” or rather “know more, pay less. “Shopping is something everyone has to do, but nobody has the time,” she says. The green movement’s three Rs, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, can be applied to Phillips’s shopping philosophy, with the happy result of saving time and money. “I buy what I love, use it for a long time, and get it fixed,” she says.

Knowing where to go is part of the plan. Phillips says shopping at liquidation centres, factory outlets and discount stores can shave 20 per cent off bills for everyday necessities. Knowing when to go, as outlined in her book’s “shopping calendar” indicating the times of year different items can be had for the cheapest price, is key.

Nor is it any longer a stigma to buy used clothing at places like Village des Valeurs or at “friperies,” Phillips says. “The entire younger generation shops there. Buying second-hand, shopping locally, fixing things, you’re not using any more of the Earth’s natural resources. There’s a whole trend of young shopkeepers opening stores with a ‘green’ concept.”

What about the “shopaholic” gene? How does she separate business from pleasure? “You’re assuming shopping is a pleasure,” she answers. “If you’re asking if I like shopping, the answer is ‘no’ – that’s why I wrote the book.”