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What is the point of Gary? |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 7,101
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What is the point of Gary?
Seriously we're six weeks in and all he's done is make faces and buy a toy boat?
Am I missing something? |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 1,400
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Quote:
Seriously we're six weeks in and all he's done is make faces and buy a toy boat?
Am I missing something? |
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Ireland
Posts: 7,470
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Looks to become a bit visible next week- finally
Think he's a bit of a dark horse, haven't seen many complaints with him yet- if any, and was only on the losing team once I think? |
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 900
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Quote:
Looks to become a bit visible next week- finally
Think he's a bit of a dark horse, haven't seen many complaints with him yet- if any, and was only on the losing team once I think? The BBC site describes Gary as "developing new store sites for a leading supermarket chain," including, "the largest property development programme in the history of the supermarket". A bit of a surprise then that he was not more prominent in tonight's handyman task as it sounds like his job was roughly the same as Elle's. |
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 629
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No one's complained about him that we have seen, he's not been close to being in the boardroom.
He's got no chance. |
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: UK
Posts: 2,345
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Quote:
It's week six, yet in order to comment on this thread, I needed to check the programme's website to remind myself which one was Gary -- and although it was amusing that his Brummie accent flummoxed Karren when recording the word "duck" in the children's book task, it is hard to see that as positive or negative unless his business plan involves waterfowl.
The BBC site describes Gary as "developing new store sites for a leading supermarket chain," including, "the largest property development programme in the history of the supermarket". A bit of a surprise then that he was not more prominent in tonight's handyman task as it sounds like his job was roughly the same as Elle's. I'm not sure that Gary's day job made him an obvious candidate for PM at all, to be honest. His job sounds a lot more 'corporate' than Elle's - it cold be anything from site research (basically an IT/number crunching job) to legal to project management to procurement to finance to any number of other functions. Odds are none of them actually involve him having to screw a nail into a wall though! |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 180
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I agree; I think he is only one not to have been PM so next week, we might see him do something. He does pull the strangest faces in boardroom like he's sucking on a lemon.
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 900
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Quote:
Elle's jobs was something to do with organising basement construction jobs, wasn't it? From the sound of it, she's involved in some form of project management for a smallish company.
I'm not sure that Gary's day job made him an obvious candidate for PM at all, to be honest. His job sounds a lot more 'corporate' than Elle's - it cold be anything from site research (basically an IT/number crunching job) to legal to project management to procurement to finance to any number of other functions. Odds are none of them actually involve him having to screw a nail into a wall though! |
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 1,228
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Like a gurning greasy double glazing/car salesman.
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#10 |
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 1,188
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His face screams dreariness. It's the type of face you see on a drizzly, cold, morning commute at 7am, that you look at and think "that about sums up the mood right now". Looking at him sends a shiver of dread down my spine, you can't picture him anywhere else but in an office, wearing anything other than a grey suit. He just epitomises the drudgery of work.
I know that's harsh but I just can't shake that feeling every time I see him. |
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,564
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Quote:
His face screams dreariness. It's the type of face you see on a drizzly, cold, morning commute at 7am, that you look at and think "that about sums up the mood right now". Looking at him sends a shiver of dread down my spine, you can't picture him anywhere else but in an office, wearing anything other than a grey suit. He just epitomises the drudgery of work.
I know that's harsh but I just can't shake that feeling every time I see him. |
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 4,220
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He came out of last nights show smelling like a rose and believing he was responsible for the win, He made piss-poor decisions including re-stocking right near the close of business, his team all worked hard for him and that's why they won.
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#13 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,562
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A very misleading edit.
What with Gary apparently leaving cash in the till for far too long and Richard putting on his usual tw4t act to attract passers-by (most probably crossed over to avoid him), by the time it came to totting up the balance sheet it looked like the yellows were ahead. Then the blues went and won by nearly a grand .. so I guess much of that has to be down to Gary. He sorted out his products and pricing, then organised the store accordingly. And like he said, retail is detail. That's not to say he won't be gone next week, but just this week I think you have to say the odd-looking Brummie guy done good. |
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2,194
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Quote:
His face screams dreariness. It's the type of face you see on a drizzly, cold, morning commute at 7am, that you look at and think "that about sums up the mood right now". Looking at him sends a shiver of dread down my spine, you can't picture him anywhere else but in an office, wearing anything other than a grey suit. He just epitomises the drudgery of work.
I know that's harsh but I just can't shake that feeling every time I see him. |
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 900
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Quote:
A very misleading edit.
What with Gary apparently leaving cash in the till for far too long and Richard putting on his usual tw4t act to attract passers-by (most probably crossed over to avoid him), by the time it came to totting up the balance sheet it looked like the yellows were ahead. Then the blues went and won by nearly a grand .. so I guess much of that has to be down to Gary. He sorted out his products and pricing, then organised the store accordingly. And like he said, retail is detail. That's not to say he won't be gone next week, but just this week I think you have to say the odd-looking Brummie guy done good. One such moment was when Brett and Vana looked down at their rivals' shop and laughed at Richard's ice-skating. Vana: "the store looks good; it looks like they are very organised". They reported back to the rest of the team about Gary's superior layout with attractive goods displayed at the front to draw customers in. An earlier clue came at the initial planning stage. Karren commented that Scott's team had all discussed how they themselves used discount stores, "but not one of them mentioned electronics, and they've decided to stock their store with electronics". |
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: South Wales
Posts: 5,865
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But he did fail on the "loss leaders", he failed to recognise that a £1 shop around the corners were selling their products cheaper, failed to restock in time, and according to the edit was largely missing in the afternoon. So yep a great manager
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#17 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 900
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Quote:
But he did fail on the "loss leaders", he failed to recognise that a £1 shop around the corners were selling their products cheaper, failed to restock in time, and according to the edit was largely missing in the afternoon. So yep a great manager
Neither team did well, as they both ignored the spirit of the task. Lord Sugar told them at the briefing back at the house that they should use branded goods as loss leaders and mark up the unbranded stuff -- both teams ignored him. Lord Sugar told them to restock frequently -- both teams ignored him. Lord Sugar told them that stock would be counted as assets, which passed many if not all of them by. But Gary won the "let's open some sort of shop" task they ran instead of the one Lord Sugar envisaged. |
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#18 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: UK
Posts: 2,345
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Quote:
Less bad than Scott, anyway. Gary won because he knew about retail.
Neither team did well, as they both ignored the spirit of the task. Lord Sugar told them at the briefing back at the house that they should use branded goods as loss leaders and mark up the unbranded stuff -- both teams ignored him. Lord Sugar told them to restock frequently -- both teams ignored him. Lord Sugar told them that stock would be counted as assets, which passed many if not all of them by. But Gary won the "let's open some sort of shop" task they ran instead of the one Lord Sugar envisaged. It's also implied that Gary leaving it late to restock was an error. I'm not so sure. Remember, they could only restock as much as the cash they had in the till would allow them. So at the start of day 2, both teams would have had minimal cash available (having spent most of it on stock). By lunchtime they would have had some but not necessarily that much. Then with every passing hour the cash pile increased. By leaving it later in the day, Gary ensured he could buy the maximum amount of stock and then focus on selling it through at a low (but still profitable) price in the final hour or so. Whatever stock was left would have been valued at cost price, so it wouldn't have penalised the team. I might have gone maybe 30-60 minutes earlier than Gary did but if the teams only had one chance to restock, I'm not convinced what he did is as wrong as it was made out to be either. He was really thinking like a retailer, going for 'just in time' replenishment (after a fashion). |
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#19 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 554
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I couldn't work out why stocking up was so crucial at the end of Day 1, when surely they could have gone at the beginning of Day 2 as wholesalers presumably open well before the Arndale centre?
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#20 |
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Wolf359
Posts: 96,675
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 10,733
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I couldn't work out why stocking up was so crucial at the end of Day 1, when surely they could have gone at the beginning of Day 2 as wholesalers presumably open well before the Arndale centre?
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 4,552
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Quote:
His face screams dreariness. It's the type of face you see on a drizzly, cold, morning commute at 7am, that you look at and think "that about sums up the mood right now". Looking at him sends a shiver of dread down my spine, you can't picture him anywhere else but in an office, wearing anything other than a grey suit. He just epitomises the drudgery of work.
I know that's harsh but I just can't shake that feeling every time I see him. It's not just the face. It's his voice as well. |
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#23 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,406
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#24 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 7,653
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Why on earth would people restock constantly? It removes 40% of your sales force for over an hour at a time. If you're not running out of stuff, don't go. They were hardly making massive margins on the stuff.
I thought Gary got a rough deal in the edit to be honest. His initial pricing strategy was dumb but otherwise I think the team was led well (certainly nobody issued any complaints in the boardroom). Focusing on making sure the shop looked attractive and well-organised (compared to the misery bombsite of the other team) was very important, but they showed him doing it interspersed with shots of frowny-face Claude and jokes about "Toilet World". It just felt like a hatchet job because Gary's the "Invisible Candidate" this year. |
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 10,733
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Quote:
Why on earth would people restock constantly? It removes 40% of your sales force for over an hour at a time. If you're not running out of stuff, don't go. They were hardly making massive margins on the stuff.
its a smell what sells task and as such you just need to ensure the public get what they want when they want as LS aint charging for the transport etc so if you go every hour it costs you no more than once a day and as lord sid said he didn't mind people not selling if they was pulling their weight in other ways |
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