I's have thought any French Supermarket would sell Mussells and Escargot - even a British supermarket would have Mussells for sure ( possibly frozen Escargot too) - I simply can't imagine why they'd buy from a restaurant. Why would a restaurant sell them produce at a good rate when they've purchased them for their own use and to make a profit.

I couldn't get my head around that at all TBH.

Not sure, there has been many incidents in the past (unaired) where teams were turned away from some places due to the management not wanting them to film in there.

Regarding frozen though - they were told to get fresh in the description.

There are a lot of rules for the tasks that aren't made explicit to us viewers. Way back in series 1 viewers were puzzled why Tim spent ages getting a very small discount - in later series it was revealed they couldn't accept the first price offered.
Later people wondered why the apprentices didn't just use their smart phones to search online for stuff, in later series it was made clear they aren't allowed to do so.
So maybe supermarkets are against the rules or they simply aren't tried as they won't be able to get a discount in there.

I have also heard that they are actually told which shops to go to..it seems to be a bit more scripted that some think if thats the case

Probably sorting out the ability to haggle with a major supermarket would just be too much along with permission to film issues, as with a small shop they can 'close' it for the 10-15 mins of filming which would be impossible for a supermarket.

I don't think they are told which shops to go to. We often see them just running around trying to find a random place.

But anyway, why would they do that? The producers evidently like the candidates to look stupid, giving them any hints of where to go would make the task easier.

But why would you buy from a supermarket when a wholesaler will be cheaper?

Looking forward to going in to Morrisons next week to see if I can barter 20% off from the girl on the check-out.

Hmm I'm not so sure, they both ended up at the same town and the exact same shop!!

I would of thought they'd have to obtain permission before hand to film in a shop, they couldn't just "do it on the fly" or they'd spend all day looking for filming locations. Would also lend value to the fact they ignored Jenny when she said let's go to Canterbury and the fact the girls seemed fixated on going into restaurants to find their mussels. Added to the fact that they were in a "fishing port" but only used one chandler.

Why would Jenny have suggested going in the first place then?

I wish they'd make these rules clear so that we can discuss them better. Could they not be put on the website?

I don't know if that is the case on this task but there are others where I reckon they definitely get producer help, remember the tour bus last year where groups of people where somehow magic-ed up out of thin air and Bianca basically begged them to get on the bus.

Well she mentions that her dad is in the antiques trade (or something along those lines) and that there's loads of antique shops there. Considering they were looking for French Lace, a Mirror and champagne flutes which can come under antiques I would of thought it would of been a better place to source those items, than say Dover.

I wonder if the production staff go ahead and ensure that the items are available at a certain number of stores and maybe even drop some extra stock at those to ensure there will be stock available (let me get one from the back room) but obviously the candidates can go else where.

With the cheese it might of been the nearest shop to the port and thus once they got sorted after the boat ride both found that shop.

This episode had a few "wtf" moments, a traveling salesman who by "his body language" appeared to be selling glassware and of all the cheese shops in France, they appear in the same one.

I thought the salesman had approached them, when he overheard the team discussing the glasses whilst still at the hotel.
Both teams seemed to go to Boulogne, which isn't particularly big - maybe its only got one cheese-shop?

^^ Aye but Vana mentioned something about "body language" and being approached. How he knew they wanted glasses is anyones guess as I doubt they were speaking French and his English wasn't great. And how in the hell do you get from €200 down to €50's, bet his customers are watching that "thinking next time you come here Pepe with you over priced tat, I'll tell you were to stick it"

At te very end of the task Brett specifically told Joseph to take his team to a supermarket to try to get the snails, so if it's a rule, the candidates weren't aware of it.

I remember one series, not the negotiation task but one of the food based ones where one of the teams had to visit a supermarket and stock up on some ready made items as they ran out of their own!

It does take them all day. They are supposed to do it by phone, though. They're given directories and are supposed to phone around and find suppliers who (a) have an item and (b) will let them film, and then plot an efficient journey to collect them. In real life it wouldn't take long, but the restrictions make it much harder.

I don't think the producers would allow them to buy from supermarkets. If they could just buy everything from Tesco, there'd be no drama in these sort of tasks, and no opportunity for the candidates to show off their negotiating skill.

The items are usually pretty obscure though, a lot of them you wouldn't find in supermarkets even if you were allowed to use them.

And major supermarkets would not allow them to film either.

It would not be a simple matter of just asking the Manager of the the local branch if they could film - He would have to ask their Head Office - and then fill in forms and god knows what months in advance.

Surely a fishmonger/market or fish wholesaler would sell mussels. Bit of a head scratcher.

You really wouldn't have thought it was that difficult but there seemed to be a couple of factors at work. First, mussels were handed back from France to Britain halfway through the task, after the UK team had completed any planning it might have done, and probably after it had left the coast. Second, Jenny was unassertive and could not get any phone time.

Vana should have kept the food items together and bought the lot in a French market. Half an hour to pick up cheese, snails and mussels. Job's a good'un.

With cheaper goods, the main point is just to buy them at almost any cost. Even if they'd paid twice what the boys did, they'd be down maybe ten euros, but if they don't get them at all, they're looking at a £50 fine per item. With expensive items, the sums are reversed, as they risk overpaying by more than the fine.

Yep and avoiding fines also seems to be key to this challenge so just getting £1 off an item will avoid a fine and you'll have the item.

I am not sure how feasible it is to get the permissions to film sorted that same day but perhaps it is sometimes possible. I still think there are at least some places set up in advance. There would be several reasons for this, including places where haggling will definitely be possible, places where they can at least get the goods, places where they will be expensive and/or drive a hard bargain, and places where the candidates will look stupid.

Is it possible that the vegan shop in a previous week was actually set up to make them look stupid and hence give the audience a laugh? I wouldn't even be surprised if the producers told them to still try the shop after they realized it was a vegan place. There are lots of articles about reality TV that show how contrived much of it can be. I suspect this show is far more orchestrated and set-up than even many cynical viewers would think. It's entertainment, though (and most certainly not about "business"), so I don't really care if it is a fun watch.