In addition to being a horrible project manager on a previous episode, Jenny lied and cheated (doing neither very well) and was fired in The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 7. That wasn’t enough for Sir Alan, though, as he also targeted the project manager for the losing team, Jennifer, firing her for being a snake as well.
Helene is pissed off that she a) has to associate with these people and b) can’t fire them (all of them apparently). Get rid of this crazy chick already.
The subject of the task this week is weddings. They have two stands at the National Wedding Show where they will represent suppliers of wedding items.
The teams are reorganized. For the 18th time. Claire moves over to Alpha. Helene and Sara move to Renaissance.
Claire dreams of marriage and wedding dresses and so forth. Raef is anti-marriage.
Helene steps forward as project manager for Renaissance because she used to model in bridal shows (she did?) and has had a lot of friends get married.
Lucinda will again be the project manager for Alpha.
Michael and Sara first stop to see bridal designer Ian Stuart, whose dresses sell for up to £2,500. Michael couldn’t care less but pretends to be interested. Helene and Alex visit a shop that specializes in colored dresses.
Over on Alpha, Claire and Raef will be visiting wedding dress businesses, while the rest of the team focuses on other items. They also visit Ian first, and unlike the other two, who didn’t care for him, Claire loved it. Their next stop is to check out some plus size dresses.
Lucinda and Lee are going to check out other products, and they start off with cakes, though they are unclear on whether they’re expensive or not.
Michael and Sara also make a stop at a cake store. Sara believes this is critical. Alex and Helene are checking out wedding lingerie and honeymoon beachwear. Helene is gushing and wants this the most. Unsurprisingly, she shoots down the cakes. Michael says that an intelligent person would have sent two people to look at wedding dresses and two people to look at the other stuff (like the other team did at Claire’s suggestion).
Lucinda also likes the underpants, and she and Lee agree they want that over the cakes.
Claire and Raef next stop at a Big High Street retailer. Claire likes this cheaper store the most, though Raef likes Ian the most. They agree to go for Ian Stuart first and BHS second due to Ian’s brand name.
Michael pushes for Ian, but Helene again wants to go with the cheaper option and the one she saw, the colored dresses.
Both teams have chosen different dresses, but they must now convince the lingerie shop owner to choose them over the other team since they both want that. Based on the dress selection being complementary to their product line, the shop goes with team Alpha and Ian. Helene’s team opts for cake instead.
Sara and Michael are concerned about the tacky dresses Helene has chosen.
Lucinda’s team quickly has a queue waiting to try on dresses, though they’re not moving. Nick doesn’t believe this strategy will pay off because this is a mass market place. Lee is finding it easy to sell the low cost lingerie and beach items as expected, but he knows they need wedding dress sales to make it worthwhile.
Alex tries a conversational approach to selling dresses and doesn’t believe in a hard sell, particularly when it comes to wedding dresses. Unlike Alex, Michael is an aggressive seller, which looks like a turn off. Likewise, Sara also comes off as pushy.
Around 4:00, Raef is questioning the wisdom in his decision to pursue the high end dress market. Lucinda decides to let Lee have a go. And Raef gets into a bear uniform, the lingerie company’s promotional outfit.
Michael’s still not selling any cakes. He opts for trying to make a potential customer feel bad, and he believes the people he’s dealing with are dumb.
As the show is wrapping up, with still no wedding dress sales, some of the people from earlier in the day are returning to Alpha’s stand to check out Ian Stuart’s dresses again. They finally get a sale. Then another. Claire realizes something Sara and Michael failed to realize: these people are there for an all day thing and don’t want to make snap decisions.
Lucinda’s team really likes her.
Michael is quick to point out that it was an error to not have each team dedicated to one line of products.
Alpha returns with £5,752.99, £647.24 for the accessories and the rest from three dresses. Renaissance sold 5 dresses but no cakes, for total sales of £1,925.00. Sir Alan congratules Alpha on their gamble paying off, and Nick is really impressed by Claire’s selling and believes she was well led by Lucinda.
This is a tough choice. Aside from Alex, I’m not seeing much of anything from Renaissance.
Michael blames the lack of a gamble for the loss. Sara believes that Helene contributed the least to the task.
Sir Alan got the impression that Michael was already covering his tracks for the loss even before it was announced what the results were.
Helene pretends she would have gone with another route if somebody had defended their stance more passionately.
Sir Alan wants to know why Alex, who was the only one who got anything done for this team on this task, is always on the losing side. Alex wants the person who sold the least on the day to be fired, which would be Sara.
Michael and Sara acknowledge that cakes were a bad decision. Margaret brings up that both of them were pushy anyway.
Alex is safe, and Helene will be bringing Sara and Michael back with her.
Much more of the same follows in the remaining portion of the boardroom.
Helene wants Sara gone because she doesn’t like how she treats people. Both Sara and Michael want Helene gone.
Sara has been fired because she doesn’t do anything, is confusing, and has alienated customers. Sir Alan is getting more and more fed up with Michael, who remains on borrowed time but gets another shot.
On the way home, Sara basically tells us that she can’t work with other people.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Apprentice UK Series 4 episode 9.