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Week 5: Five Thoughts |
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#26 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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1. The quality of the product you make does not matter, it's how much you can flog it for - has been the Amstrad motto for years.
2. Curious lack of mention of the audiobook version after about half way, they didn't sell them, Lord Sir Alan didn't discuss them. 3. Still a lot of people under the radar, the winner will be one of those once we shed some more lightweight cannon fodder. 4. You can't compare a limited edition self published piece of tat to a first edition Dickens no matter how badly you define "rare". 5. Focus groups mean nothing if you can win the task by discounting below cost just to get rid of stock. But quite clever to realise you don't get awarded any value to remaining stock at the end of the day, and you don't get charged production costs. so you have nothing to loose. |
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#27 |
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Join Date: Jun 2013
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It was a smart move even though it was relatively small - it showed he had a nose for a sale in an unusual situation rather than just plodding along and following the task rules. But, yes, pretty much all he has done so far other than that is ask whether a spring onion is an onion, try to sell fish to a vegan and wonder whether Samuel Johnson might have anything to do with Samuel L Jackson.
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#28 |
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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Fair enough, but I still don't think that (honestly) did anything for the task or the team, but yes a good out-of-the-box move. I just hope LS, Claude and Karren have taken note of him, and put him as Project manager for a task.
It's amazing that Mergim has a 5-0 task record. He may have done lots of stuff in the background that we haven't seen but it's clear even from the edit that he hasn't made a truly telling contribution in the way that some of the others have. You can look at Richard and David (the other two with a perfect record) and pick out clear good moments - and both have been PM once too - but with Mergim you just feel that if he has one bad week he hasn't built up enough points in the plus column to survive. |
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#29 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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6. If you'd offered Waterstone's the same price you dumped the remaining stock for then you could have offloaded them all at once and had half a day off.
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#30 |
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Join Date: Jun 2011
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Didn't that book actually have her as it's author on the cover? I think she's doing a hell of a lot more than we are seeing, perhaps she's just not the type to make a fuss about everyone acknowledging her input. (Although her lack of blowing her own horn may be her downfall later when she doesn't pipe up in the BR).
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#31 |
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Join Date: Feb 2013
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Mergim unless he's really been doing things off camera will struggle when he's PM, as his team will have no confidence in him, and will either over-ride him or just be pains and drop him in it.
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#32 |
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Join Date: Jun 2012
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1. The quality of the product you make does not matter, it's how much you can flog it for - has been the Amstrad motto for years.
2. Curious lack of mention of the audiobook version after about half way, they didn't sell them, Lord Sir Alan didn't discuss them. 3. Still a lot of people under the radar, the winner will be one of those once we shed some more lightweight cannon fodder. 4. You can't compare a limited edition self published piece of tat to a first edition Dickens no matter how badly you define "rare". 5. Focus groups mean nothing if you can win the task by discounting below cost just to get rid of stock. But quite clever to realise you don't get awarded any value to remaining stock at the end of the day, and you don't get charged production costs. so you have nothing to loose. |
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#33 |
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Join Date: May 2012
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Sam reminds me of Constable Goody in 'The Thin Blue Line' which means I can't take him seriously.
I can't see him being Lord Sugar's apprentice in a million years (far too diffident, and indecisive) so I was surprised Lord S didn't pick him off as well. |
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#34 |
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Join Date: Dec 2008
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It's amazing that Mergim has a 5-0 task record. He may have done lots of stuff in the background that we haven't seen but it's clear even from the edit that he hasn't made a truly telling contribution in the way that some of the others have. You can look at Richard and David (the other two with a perfect record) and pick out clear good moments - and both have been PM once too - but with Mergim you just feel that if he has one bad week he hasn't built up enough points in the plus column to survive.
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#35 |
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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At this point in Series 7 Edna had a 5-0 record AND a PM win, anything's possible.
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#36 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
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For sure - that's the same with the products/ads the teams create in many of the tasks. They ask a 'team' of people who know nothing about the market and have none of the necessary skills to do something that would take a professional team weeks or months. The fact the teams come up with any product at all is a miracle - of course, the task is meant to test the process they go through as much as the actual product.
But even if it is unrealistic to expect candidates to produce a 30-second television commercial in half a day, teams often let themselves down in these creative tasks by not asking themselves the obvious question: what would the professionals do? Putting an extra seat on the roof might make your car stand out in a crowded market but there's probably a reason Ford, Vauxhall and the rest have the seats on the inside. The teams aren't fashion designers but if asked to design a cocktail dress for M&S, say, they should stick to plain colours rather than pink and green polka dots. You do not need to run your own salon like Charleine to know how shampoo is packaged and advertised: anyone with a television and a shower will know. Anyone with children or even a modicum of common sense will know that books aimed at 3-5 year-olds have short words in big print with pictures on every page. The winner has only got £250,000 to get their new company off the ground, so they need to do most of the work themselves, at least in the early stages. The 10-task process needs to weed out those who are afraid of hard work, have no common sense, and can't negotiate. |
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#37 |
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My main thought was almost falling off my bed when I heard Mergim speak. What's funnier is that he is one of only 3 people who have won every task. But he hasn't been a PM yet. David and Richard have won as time as PM and won all 5 tasks.
I know a lot can happen in the rest of the series and the interviews get rid of powerful previous performers, but I can't see a female winning. I think David or Richard have it in the bag to be honest. If you think about previous weeks, I think David has been the person who has never had a disagreement with the others or a Sugar telling off for any reason. Sugar has seen this with the whole Charliene wanting to hear David's voice over Richard, so Alan Sugar surely had David on a pedestal. 5/5 wins, a win as PM, gets on with everyone, performs well in tasks etc.. |
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#38 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 900
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Quote:
It was a smart move even though it was relatively small - it showed he had a nose for a sale in an unusual situation rather than just plodding along and following the task rules. But, yes, pretty much all he has done so far other than that is ask whether a spring onion is an onion, try to sell fish to a vegan and wonder whether Samuel Johnson might have anything to do with Samuel L Jackson.
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#39 |
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Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 620
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If I'm aloud, I'm going to do another five thoughts (this one is very long...sorry!)
1a) Natalie coughing - what the hell was that? I mean it was the most obviously deliberate attempt for sympathy I've seen on TA. Somehow, she was coughing when there was the thought of pitching to a major retailer, but not when she had to pitch to individual retailers. In fact, there was a large gap between her coughing in deliberations and her coughing next - in the boardroom. She made so many small "oh I'm genuinely ill" coughs as if that made a difference, and wanted to make sure she was off the hook completely by getting Sam's sympathy. She only coughed when she had to speak, not when she was fired or when someone else was speaking. 1b) To be honest, I think Natalie is up there with the all-time worst candidates on the show. She bought the disgusting, low-quality squid in week one and claimed it was a good buy, she put herself forward to pitch in week two, made a fool of herself then claimed it was the products' fault despite offering no solutions in the process of making it (she was very childish and petulant about this as well - watch the way she says "If I saw that I'd never want to pitch for it" or something like that). In week three she got the wrong cheese at quite a small discount if I remember rightly, then Vana claimed that she's been "working very hard". Week four, she did little bar criticise Brett, but again - offered no solutions. Then in week five, I don't really think I need to explain the problems yet again. 2) LS doesn't like Sam, I can tell. I think he's giving to many Nicholas "de-Lacy" Brown vibes of being too posh, or being too snobby. 3) LS has also made a number of bum decisions this year, I think. Dan was sort of justified, but April really should've gone instead. Aisha was justified, but Natalie should've gone too. Jenny's was completely unjustified (helped the other team, fired for not getting mussels. Just because she didn't have "an item to her name" doesn't mean she should be fired.) If she hadn't been in the BR then, she could've gone really far. Ruth's was wrong too. She was trying to sell and had done well before then, she just had an off day. Selina or Brett should've gone. Natalie's was justified, but I think Sam should've gone too. 4) If Elle loses next week, she's the worst official candidate of all time - six consecutive losing tasks, boardroom once, no wins. Likewise, David, Mergim and Richard all have the "Helen Milligan" potential to be the best". 5) I've split the candidates into three categories - dead wood, quietly competent and potential winners. Selina, Sam, Brett, April, Gary and Mergim are all dead wood - been negatively edited or under the radar far too much. Brett's a bit of an anomaly, but I don't think he can go far (bald people, as someone pointed out, never do well...if you ignore Tim Campbell). Elle, Scott and Vana are quietly competent, and I could easily see one of them in the final. Elle's been on all losing teams, but she's been progressing quietly. Scott, likewise - lost as PM, not really his fault. Vana was a complete bitch in week three but has been pretty competent apart from then. Of the remaining few - Charleine, David, Joseph and Richard - I imagine that it could be a Richard/Charleine final two, which could be just about the most dramatic final two ever. David's good, but I think he may be fired for being too nice, overenthusiastic or maybe with regret in the business rounds. Joseph also is good, but I think he'll stumble in the business rounds - he comes across as quite thick to me, his CV will be destroyed and I imagine he'll have next-to-no financial figures. Ideas and sales wise, he's great. But Lord Sugar will give him the Neil Clough/Roisin Hogan edit of "one of the best candidates, one of the worst plans". Charleine/Richard would be an interesting final two, though I can imagine Charleine pipping it, with Richard being labelled a good candidate but difficult to work with (Debra was the same, I think). |
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#40 |
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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Massive corporations may use large teams of expert designers but for startups, the amateur DIY approach is far more likely. The Chinese takeaway opening down the road will need to design its own leaflets, for instance. Even the sorts of businesses we saw in the pet show task are probably doing it all themselves.
But even if it is unrealistic to expect candidates to produce a 30-second television commercial in half a day, teams often let themselves down in these creative tasks by not asking themselves the obvious question: what would the professionals do? Putting an extra seat on the roof might make your car stand out in a crowded market but there's probably a reason Ford, Vauxhall and the rest have the seats on the inside. The teams aren't fashion designers but if asked to design a cocktail dress for M&S, say, they should stick to plain colours rather than pink and green polka dots. You do not need to run your own salon like Charleine to know how shampoo is packaged and advertised: anyone with a television and a shower will know. Anyone with children or even a modicum of common sense will know that books aimed at 3-5 year-olds have short words in big print with pictures on every page. The winner has only got £250,000 to get their new company off the ground, so they need to do most of the work themselves, at least in the early stages. The 10-task process needs to weed out those who are afraid of hard work, have no common sense, and can't negotiate. I don't even think it's so much that the teams need to ask themselves what the professionals would do. It *is* more the basic application of common sense - as you say, it doesn't take a huge amount of skill to work out roughly what is right for a 3-5 year old's book. The sad thing is that the team that did the better job on this front was the one that lost - despite Sam's too-difficult words, Snottydink was much closer to hitting the target market than Bizzie, which was suitable for an 18-24 month old at best. The problem the candidates have is that common sense goes out of the window in the pressure cooker environment of the task, and with individuals often more interested in ensuring they avoid the boardroom than in actually trying to succeed as a team. As always, it's easy for us to mock them from afar but the reality of being there is, I'm sure, very different. |
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#41 |
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Join Date: Mar 2014
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The pricing strategy by Brett's sub team was ridiculous in my opinion; they went to sell a product to a store at £4.90 to sell at £7; what? In what world, would that be attractive to any retailer; a £2.10 margin on a few items, why would you even bother? I found this task hard to watch; seems like a huge amount of effort to publish a book to make about £600- £700; if they'd really got a buyer from Waterstones and Foyles, they would have either bought a large amount of stock or nothing and not 15-50 so to have those pitches with limited stock was a waste of time. They may as well do these tasks based on pretend orders from big retailers as the focus of task appears to be on creativity and pitching a concept. They could have had a pricing task as well within a high volume context; the only time I've seen this was on Season 8, episode 2.
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#42 |
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Join Date: Jul 2011
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1. Poor Richard, I don't think he is half as bad or even smug. but each to their own
2. Cant stand Charleine, what a horrible woman, her voice is so irritating and she is so bitchy 3. Poor Natalie, kind of felt sorry for her, unlucky to have gone as Sam was pretty poor also 4. Where did mergum come from?? 5. Need to get rid of Elle, Charleine, Vana and Selina ASAP |
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#43 |
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1. Charleine is a total psycho. The way she bugs out her eyes and clenches her jaw always makes it look like she's about to stab someone. I think she was very lucky to win after her poor management – trying to belittle her team whenever she could, insisting on pitching despite the fact she had no talent for it and just babbling, and sidelining Richard in such a childish and obvious way.
2. That said, I think her idea of a story about kids giving up their comfort blankets/toys was better than the generic bumblebee one they came up with. 3. Natalie has to be one of the most useless candidates in a long time. I'm so glad she got fired at last. Her pitching was atrocious, and her fake coughing was hilarious. 4. Sam's days are surely numbered. I was very surprised it wasn't a double-firing. Although if he'd brought Selina in instead of Brett, it probably would have been. 5. Although she probably deserved to be fired after her fiasco as manager in week one, keeping April in was worth it for that priceless deadpan "My degree is in creative writing." comeback to Charleine's bitchy "What are your writing skills?!" demand. The look of Charleine's face as the wind was taken out of her sails was hilarious! |
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#44 |
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Join Date: Jul 2003
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Mergim has been flying under the radar massively. He sold 2 books to a focus group... ok. Can't think of anything else he's done so far, for everyone else I can
Sam should go , but Tom won. The best business skilled people haven't won most years. The business studies students, who will be big high flyers later, still get culled. A degree in creative writing, and an edit that showed little ability using it, or an atrocious PM performance, would normally mean an early exit, but who knows. |
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#45 |
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Join Date: Oct 2013
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1. Natalie might have been a bit under the weather but she still could have done the pitch. She had worked with the client before and after her rubbish pitch a few weeks ago I think she was worried that it would go badly again. Her coughs in the meeting and then in the board room were so fake and she didn't cough once when she was trying to negotiate sales in the shops.
2. Charlene was appalling. her treatment of Richard was awful and she clearly demonstrated that she cannot manage people, doesn't use individuals strengths and definitely isn't humble in victory. 3. If April has a degree in creative writing why did she think the line ' bizzie bee got lost after being tossed ' was OK? 4. The task itself wasn't fair because it only depended on final sales irrespective of whether or not the product was any good so all the times that Lord sugar has gone on about selling quality products now counts for nothing. 5. I couldn't believe it when one of the parents actually said that they didn't know what "moisture rife " meant. On that basis alone, we should be encouraging children to learn these words at a young age! |
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#46 |
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Ireland
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1. Natalie might have been a bit under the weather but she still could have done the pitch. She had worked with the client before and after her rubbish pitch a few weeks ago I think she was worried that it would go badly again. Her coughs in the meeting and then in the board room were so fake and she didn't cough once when she was trying to negotiate sales in the shops.
2. Charlene was appalling. her treatment of Richard was awful and she clearly demonstrated that she cannot manage people, doesn't use individuals strengths and definitely isn't humble in victory. 3. If April has a degree in creative writing why did she think the line ' bizzie bee got lost after being tossed ' was OK? 4. The task itself wasn't fair because it only depended on final sales irrespective of whether or not the product was any good so all the times that Lord sugar has gone on about selling quality products now counts for nothing. 5. I couldn't believe it when one of the parents actually said that they didn't know what "moisture rife " meant. On that basis alone, we should be encouraging children to learn these words at a young age! ![]() I rewatched the episode again today and still had to roll my eyes again at that bit. I'd have done well to hold my tongue if I were there doing the task
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#47 |
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Ireland
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Rewatched again today
1. Selina should have been brought back to final BR- if only for that last sale where she said straight out they were under a time constraint and needed to shift a product. Yeah, what a way to encourage a decent offer ![]() 2. Brett is growing on me, and in my view is looking like a strong contender. LS fairly talked him up in the BR too 3. Gary trying to say "duck" and Karren's confusion ![]() 4. Sam- who I didn't even know existed until this week- could surely have been a bit shrewder and brought back Selina. Sure, he obviously didn't know she was on her 'last chance' with LS but surely if she was in the final BR for two tasks in a row, it'd enhance her chances of leaving over him? Natalie was always a gonner 5. Richard may be an arrogant so-and-so but he's getting quite a lot of screentime. It was lunacy for Charlene to not give him the pitch though, he'd every right to be furious with that Had Selina miraculously got massive price for the final sale and they actually won, who would have gone from Charlene's team I wonder? She'd probably have brought in Richard regardless ( ) and surely April who- bar that great retort as above- was again underwhelming
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#48 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 900
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Quote:
Rewatched again today
1. Selina should have been brought back to final BR- if only for that last sale where she said straight out they were under a time constraint and needed to shift a product. Yeah, what a way to encourage a decent offer In other words, what teams lose on price, they may gain on quantity. For tasks which do not count stock as an asset, it is a reasonable tactic. |
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#49 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
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Does anyone else think Karren looks knackered? Whether she is slightly under the weather, or very busy in her day job, I could not say, but at times (and not just in this episode) she seems out on her feet.
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#50 |
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 34,217
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Quote:
The pricing strategy by Brett's sub team was ridiculous in my opinion; they went to sell a product to a store at £4.90 to sell at £7; what? In what world, would that be attractive to any retailer; a £2.10 margin on a few items, why would you even bother? I found this task hard to watch; seems like a huge amount of effort to publish a book to make about £600- £700; if they'd really got a buyer from Waterstones and Foyles, they would have either bought a large amount of stock or nothing and not 15-50 so to have those pitches with limited stock was a waste of time. They may as well do these tasks based on pretend orders from big retailers as the focus of task appears to be on creativity and pitching a concept. They could have had a pricing task as well within a high volume context; the only time I've seen this was on Season 8, episode 2.
Natalie ends up , on whats shown, being blamed for not knowing what the retailers cut was as a percentage - but she had only been given the prices - no one had worked out percentages. Thats not surprising, as the show has never required them to make their prices confirm to an industry norm, they don't know. Its also hardly surprising they can't work out that figure in their head its a difficult sum- and, if they did, it would come out at some very random looking percentage - with multiple decimal places - because their percentage is a result of a price figure - not vice versa. A 29% margin would look silly - even if you knew that was what it was . The only person to come out of that questionably , was the shopkeeper - who seemed to shut them out for not being able to do a sum she couldn't do herself, even though she presumably had a calculator. There might be justification for the shopkeeper being like that, or Karen being so miserable and negative, but there's nothing in whats actually shown to justify either. |
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