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Teams should be disqualified if... |
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#26 |
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 142
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These gourmet food vans might not be widespread, but they are starting to appear. I've never seen one in Sheffield outside of fancy temporary euro food markets, but there is one set up regularly in Leeds that sells exotic meat burgers (eg Kangaroo and Zebra).
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#27 |
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Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 583
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Quote:
That's two weeks in a row its all been a bit of a nonsense. At least Adam didn't win this week, but if he had, and nothing done or said it would have really annoyed me. If a team can ignore the brief, and win as a direct result of ignoring it, then it makes a mockery of the whole thing.
Like I said after last week's nonsense of ignoring the free equipment, one idea might be for Sugar to have a wildcard each series that he can use to give a win to the losing team. |
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#28 |
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 311
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It was a poorly designed task and I liked that Adam saw through it. The results were profit based and with no formal definition of "gourmet" given, I think he was within his rights to gamble on his cost margins.
Gourmet is just marketing/branding, that part of the team failed him and I was glad Katie went because of it. |
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#29 |
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Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 12,479
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Quote:
That's two weeks in a row its all been a bit of a nonsense. At least Adam didn't win this week, but if he had, and nothing done or said it would have really annoyed me. If a team can ignore the brief, and win as a direct result of ignoring it, then it makes a mockery of the whole thing.
Like I said after last week's nonsense of ignoring the free equipment, one idea might be for Sugar to have a wildcard each series that he can use to give a win to the losing team. I'm sure there used to be a lot more reward for creativity and smart business ideas, now it is always selling. Even LA needs people that can create new products, do great marketing and get repeat business. Recently, he seems to rule out anyone that doesn't just "sell and run". |
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#30 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 12,218
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I totally agree. If LA doesn't start fining teams that don't follow the brief, every episode is the same. All task are just make the most money. Next week, with market trading, it looks like another selling episode.
I'm sure there used to be a lot more reward for creativity and smart business ideas, now it is always selling. Even LA needs people that can create new products, do great marketing and get repeat business. Recently, he seems to rule out anyone that doesn't just "sell and run". |
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#31 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 12,218
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Quote:
It was a poorly designed task and I liked that Adam saw through it. The results were profit based and with no formal definition of "gourmet" given, I think he was within his rights to gamble on his cost margins.
Gourmet is just marketing/branding, that part of the team failed him and I was glad Katie went because of it. |
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#32 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 7,239
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If you're going to have a task like this with a focus on quality, then the emphasis should be on sales not profit. Give the teams a choice of pitches (varying and generally unknown apart from those who have visited) and see if they can sell quality produce in the pitch they have chosen, demonstrating astute decision making, branding, ability to produce quality and ability to identify market need.
Give the teams a "gourmet" budget and then have them compete with each other to sell different products but at similar prices. |
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#33 |
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Guest
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 7,972
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Quote:
Not wishing to come over as a snob but I've never heard of gourmet food being sold outside on a food stall! With respect to people doing that for a living, it seems ridiculous to think people buy gourmet food walking around Scottish streets. I think the premise of this week's task was a tad absurd.
If you want gourmet 'expensive' food - go to an expensive restaurant!
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#34 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 12,479
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Quote:
If you're going to have a task like this with a focus on quality, then the emphasis should be on sales not profit. Give the teams a choice of pitches (varying and generally unknown apart from those who have visited) and see if they can sell quality produce in the pitch they have chosen, demonstrating astute decision making, branding, ability to produce quality and ability to identify market need.
Give the teams a "gourmet" budget and then have them compete with each other to sell different products but at similar prices. I hope they keep in the item hunt. I like watching the teams use their initiative to find things, work out where they'll get the best prices and negotiate buying instead of selling. We also need more "experts" telling LA which team did the best job, rather than just looking at the profit every time. |
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#35 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 443
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Quote:
I totally agree. If LA doesn't start fining teams that don't follow the brief, every episode is the same. All task are just make the most money. Next week, with market trading, it looks like another selling episode.
I'm sure there used to be a lot more reward for creativity and smart business ideas, now it is always selling. Even LA needs people that can create new products, do great marketing and get repeat business. Recently, he seems to rule out anyone that doesn't just "sell and run". When they have had advertising/creative tasks, they have experts and the boardroom comes down to idea A vs idea B but this does not really mirror the real world. Some of the worst products sell well and some award winning advertising campaigns fail. In early Apprentices, AS did sometimes talk about wanting a rounded indidual and some people who did not sell as well as others went far because of other skills. At the moment, if you do not sell well for one week you can be in the firing line. I liked the balance of earlier series better but I do see why. A team would seem to be ahead the whole task, then an inscrutable comment or two from an expert and they lost. I feel they should bring back creative/more non selling tasks but rule that they would be scored out of 10 on design, marketing etc. This would not solve the problem but I think it would be a little easier to understand. The agency who designed the adverts for Sunny Delight must have chuckled !! |
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#36 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 7,654
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I think the show is actually far less about sales ability than it used to be in the early days. Pretty much the entirity of Series 2 focused on it, with week after week of tasks that were simple sales task with no other angle (which Ruth excelled at, putting her in the final without ever having to demonstrate any other skills at all - often just separating into a sub-team of her own and ignoring the rest of the team entirely). People were definitely fired principally for lack of salesmanship (Jo, Samuel, Tuan) and not being a brash Route One salesman was behind a lot of other firings as well, such as Sebastien in Series 1.
And yet when we get to Series 6, we have quite a few people (Shibby, Paloma, Liz) who were fired despite having the highest sales total for their team and being demonstrably stronger sales people than a lot of people left. This wouldn't have happened at all in the early series. |
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#37 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 4,894
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Quote:
It was a poorly designed task and I liked that Adam saw through it. The results were profit based and with no formal definition of "gourmet" given, I think he was within his rights to gamble on his cost margins.
Gourmet is just marketing/branding, that part of the team failed him and I was glad Katie went because of it. Also, I think the editing didn't paint an entirely accurate picture of their final product. The recipe was created by a Michelin starred chef, Tom made sure Adam didn't scrimp on ingredients, Italian peasant cuisine is some of the most celebrated in the world, and just because pork mince is cheap, doesn't mean it can't be turned into something delicious. Their customers enjoyed it, as we saw. I see nothing to justify them being disqualified for ignoring the brief. In many ways, I thought it was a smart dish to go for - fundamentally they were let down by their locations. Also, I guess Adam didn't exactly help himself by giving plenty of material to fuel the storyline the editors wanted to go for (i.e. Adam is a pile em high, sell em cheap market trader who wouldn't know gourmet if he fell over it on the street'). |
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