She makes a good case, and sales hop

By Rick Dandes
The Daily Item

SUNBURY July 05, 2009 06:55 am

— Meredith Szymanski hands out free cups of beer as she makes the rounds through cities and towns in Northeast Pennsylvania in her job as Miss Miller Lite.
She shakes hands, gets her photograph taken, fends off passes from men.
But put a tall frosty one in front of her, and she’ll have to say no.
That’s because the Shamokin resident isn’t old enough.
Szymanski, in her third year of representing the national brewery, is only 20.
But add the statuesque brunette to a Sunbury beer distributor on the day before the Fourth of July, and the result is lots of sales.
Brewer’s Outlet typically sells 200 cases of Miller Lite in a week. Manager Cory Fasold said the distributor sold 500 cases of Miller Lite — and 1,030 cases overall — on Friday alone.
Harland Jackson and his brother, William, were buying a few cases for a family party in Northumberland. Both men are in their 30s, single, and they thoroughly enjoyed meeting Miss Miller Lite.
“She’s pretty,” Harland said. “But I didn’t specifically come here to meet her. I did some sampling and I have to admit, we bought some of her product when we weren’t intending to. So I guess she’s doing her job well.”
The Fourth of July is the biggest beer-selling holiday of the year, with sales across the country in 2008 topping 24 million cases during the holiday period, according to The Nielsen Co., a marketing and media information firm.
And on the day before the Fourth of July, there was Szymanski, Miss Miller Lite, dressed in a tight white tank top and mini-skirt, promoting Miller Lite and meeting her fans.
She spent most of a busy afternoon shaking hands, talking to customers inside Brewer’s Outlet and giving away beer samples.
“It can be tedious, but I enjoy meeting people and promoting the product,” she said with a wide smile. “But I wasn’t always comfortable. A few men made a pass at me. I try not to dress scantily. But you get some weirdos here and there, leering at me. At those times I don’t want to know what they’re thinking. It’s something I’ve learned to deal with when I do public appearances like this.”
The strangest thing she’s ever had to do as Miss Miller Lite is to sing to someone.
“I made an appearance at a bar for a promotion,” she recalled. “There was a drawing and I had to sing to the winner. Luckily, I’m a good singer, and not shy about it.”
Szymanski, who is about to enter her senior year at Shippensburg University, is pursuing a degree in education and said she’d like to be a third-grade teacher some day. She was unsure about pursuing a modeling career.
Szymanski became a model by the oddest of circumstances and pure chance.
“I was working at a convenience store in Shamokin when a customer walked in. She was from Angel Promotions, a modeling agency,” Szymanski said. “And she asked me, ‘What are you doing here?’ You only hear about things like this in the movies, but it did happen to me. That’s how I was discovered.”
Soon after, she was taken on by the company, based in Pottsville.
“When they asked me if I’d like to be Miss Miller Lite, I said, ‘Sure.’ I didn’t even have to audition. But being Miss Miller Lite is not all I do. I have other modeling jobs.”
She has also represented other breweries, like Yuengling.
“It’s funny that I’m representing all these beers when I don’t drink,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not sure that I’ll drink after I turn 21.”
Szymanski’s appearance helped sales, Fasold said.
“On a busy day where we’ll sell a lot of beer, we thought it would be nice to have a pretty face for people to look at,” he said. “She’s also a very sweet person.”

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