Just caught up this week, felt Natalie got quite a harsh time of it on You're Fired compared to some, or maybe I just noticed it more because I quite like her

Even though Alex was in the bottom 3 I think he has the potential to do well. I didn't realise he was so young and for 22 his resume is clearly impressive and he is clearly articulate and confident.

Kurt's heart didn't seem to quite be in it, and Natalie surviving another week would have felt wrong so I wasn't surprised by the double elimination

this week and last make 2 episodes no? Don't be a smartass, obviously the show has been boring since (after) the dubai episode.

How is that 'obvious'? It's just one person's opinion.

I wonder if it's a record for a thread to reach page 36 before anybody made a remotely intelligent comment?

They were on a hiding to nothing with those retro caravans. I doubt if they sell hardly any at the shows, merely attending in the hope of some press coverage. Most people who buy them already have a vintage VW and order the caravan sprayed in matching colours. They tend to be bought by people who are much younger than typical caravan buyers.

That folding camper was a pretty cool design and a highly desirable piece of kit for those who can afford them. Far cooler than most caravans and with huge double beds.

???

Firstly you said 2-3 episodes. 3 episodes would include Dubai as well. In addition, 2 episodes could be read as 2 not including the one we just saw which would, also, include Dubai.
More to the point, that's your opinion. The point I made was that the last few including last weeks were very entertaining for some people and I include myself in that number.
You can't just state your opinion as fact.

Actually, they weren't on a hiding to nothing - even though the episode tried to paint it otherwise.

Both product vendors disclosed how many they had sold so far. The retro camper had sold fewer (6 or 7, I think, versus 11 or so - I forget the exact number) but also retailed at a significantly higher price. If Endeavour had sold two of the more expensive models (£17k), they would have outsold Evolve's three (which we were told netted £30,499).

The odds were against Kurt's team (likelihood of lower sales, not a great fit with target market), but it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility by any means. With a better sales strategy (using Leah rather than Kurt) and a smidgen of luck - the right customers pitching up on the right day - Endeavour could easily have won, although I would say the odds were always going to be less than 50:50. But to say they had no chance is overstating it. One or two sales makes all the difference in this kind of task.

And no exhibitor attends a show just hoping to get press coverage. They weren't there just for the task - it's just that the candidates took over for one day of what was, I think, a 5 or 6 day show. It's a significant investment of both time and money (you typically pay several thousand pounds for the space you occupy at a trade show), so no one does it frivolously.

And I don't think you could even say they were doing it just to get on the Apprentice either. The Motorhome and Caravan show is the biggest of its type in the UK - anyone who's anyone would have been there anyway. It's very likely they'd booked to be at the show already.

The company that makes those VW replica caravans makes them on a very small scale. They're obviously photogenic as far as the media are concerned, but there are several lightweight alternatives that really offer better value. Those caravans sell to people who are prepared to pay for the look and you really need to tow them behind a VW campervan for the maximum effect. You can even buy them as a basic unpainted shell if you want to cut the cost, but they're very much a niche market, even if they are really quite clever.

If they'd carried out their research, they could probably have picked one of the small, more mainstream caravans and sold quite a few of them.

Plus in past series, candidates have been scolded for not clarifying what discounts they can offer. In this case, though, there would presumably have been a higher profit margin - and hence more wiggle room - on the big ticket items.

Yes - Kurt's eye rolling did not give the impression that he could learn from criticism...

It's unlikely that the teams were allowed to carry out much in the way of research - as in many other tasks, they're restricted in terms of access to the internet.

I also very much doubt they had a free choice of people who were at the show. They would have been set up with the opportunity to represent only a small number of vendors who would have agreed beforehand to be potentially involved in the show, presumably hoping it would boost their profile. The teams certainly can't pick and choose whoever they like.

They have no way of knowing that. Their only information is what they are told. And they were just told what the historic sales had been. On that they could anticipate more than half as many sales as the other team with the smaller caravan - but at a price that was more than half as much again. Its a reasonable gamble - on what they were told - looking at it that way. If they looked at historic sales per day, they.might have concluded the odds of selling 2 caravans in the day they were there were less attractive. The other team might have worried about a projected sale of only 2 - but in the event they did better than they might have expected to historically , by selling 3.

I'm going get some sleep. Night all.

Oopsie wrong thread