Hey everyone! Here's my review of Week 8 of The Apprentice!
At the beginning of this episode we found out that the candidates would be going to County Hall, and that they needed to have an overnight bag. Dani asked where the hell is County Hall and Victoria explained that the competition was getting tough. Lord Sugar explained that they were entering a venue that was once a set for an Agatha Christie story, and for their next task they would be running an immersive event. Team Apex would be at Shrewsbury Prison and Team Infinity would be hosting a Victorian experience. Team Infinity was led by Avi, and Team Apex was led by Mark. Marnie did explain to her team that she had run six events previously and Avi said that he had run immersive events before, so naturally he was more suitable for the challenge. Marnie explained that she could handle Avi being the project manager, but he wouldn't be able to handle her being in charge. Mark explained to his team that he had never been the project manager before and therefore wanting to put himself forward. Megan explained that they should think about prices, with Victoria saying that the option of having a magician would be more interactive. Megan added that the task was all about making money.
Avi said that a contortionist would be the cheapest option of entertainment, with Bradley saying that they could charge £100 per ticket. Avi explained that the tickets were going to be £109 and they couldn't go any lower than £99, with Marnie questioning the weird prices with the 9's. Avi explained that having '9's as part of a price makes the brain think that something is cheaper. On the other team, Mark said that they should price their tickets for £200 with Megan and Victoria both saying that the price was too high. Megan also said that they shouldn't over promise on the event. Mark explained that with the experience he wanted to go for pub grub food, with Victoria suggesting that they shouldn't spend more than £20 per person. In the car on the way to the venue, Mark said that £180 is a little bit too high for a ticket, so Victoria said they should go with £110, with the lowest price being £95. Dani explained that if Megan doesn't get a good negotiation on the food, then they will have a small margin of being able to make profit. Mark, Dani and Victoria were on the sales team to try and get customers to buy a ticket for their event, with prices starting at £110. Mark asked some members of the public how much they would spend on an event, and one person said £20. Baroness Brady said that it was not a good strategy for Mark to be asking customers how much they wanted to pay, as they will obviously go for the lowest prices possible.
Avi and Rochelle were the sales team for the other immersive event, and whilst Rochelle was trying to sell the experience to a male customer, Avi jumped into her speech to try and add some details. Rochelle explained that Avi would talk over her whilst she was pitching, and Avi suggested that the two of them work together and share the pitch rather than it just being one of them on their own. Simba and Megan were off to negotiate food prices, and they were told that gourmet burgers were £35, with Megan asking if they could do £30. They decided that because of the high price for the event, they wanted to go for higher quality food, and were told that if they were able to sell all tickets, they could get the burgers for £24, and if not, then it would be £25.50 for the total. Megan said that they should also add six bottles of wine, with Simba adding that the costs for the food and drink was £250+. Marnie explained to Brad that she felt like she had gone back in time, and they tried to negotiate on the food price which started at £9.25. The client explained that he liked three figures, and Bradley managed to bring him down to £8.50. Marnie dded that spending another £4.50 on alcohol was not a good idea. Mark, tried to sell two tickets for £95 each to an elderly couple who said that going to a prison wasn't something they wanted to do with their time. Simba and Megan tried out the prisoner experienve, with Megan explaining that the bar had been set very high. Bradley and Marnie got into character for their day out, with one of the facts including that candles needed Oxygen, and Marnie saying that as she works in a court, she's good at retaining facts.
Mark tried to sell a group discount of tickets for £75 per person, with Victoria suggesting that they should drop the magician out of the offer to try and make profit. They sold 12 tickets at £60, including the magician, and Dani explained that they need to sell more tickets otherwise it's a higher cost per person for the entertainment. Avi sold 10 tickets for £60, giving away free photos to one of the clients, and Mark sold another 6 tickets for £50 each. After Rochelle asked if the contortionist was alright, Avi managed to get her down in price from £300 to almost £150, and Rochelle jumped in with a bid of £275, with Avi saying that he's happy to have got an offer of £250. Mark asked their magician if he could go down from £500 to £300, and they managed to get 40 minutes worth of entertainment for £300, with Baroness Brady saying that the magician didn't want to budge from Mark's price. Megan asked Simba to practce his officer voice, and asked the rest of his team how many tickets they sold. Mark said they managed to sell 18 for £1.020, with Simba adding that they basically gave the tickets away. Avi told his team that they managed to sell 22 tickets for £1,429, with photos included for free for one of the clients. Marnie explained that it wasn't fair for one group to have free photos and for the other group to be charged, adding that the photos was a missed opportunity to make extra money. Megan told her team that they spent £15.50 for food and alcohol, with Baroness Brady pointing out that they had mad a mistake with the alcohol form, with Victoria adding that they were working on a minus.
It was over to Avi and Marnie who led the immersive experience with Rochelle and Bradley in the kitchen preparing food by 3:45pm. Mark explained to his team that they needed to upsale on the photos, with Dani saying that they needed to rely on tips. Megan and Simba began hosting their prisoner experience, getting into character straightaway, and Ai and Marnie began their event with a Victorian spelling class, with the customers loving Lady Madeley. Simba was told by one of the guests that she expected to be going on a tour of the prison, adding that nothing was mentioned about the magician. Bradley and Rochelle began making pies in the kitchen, and Mark estimated the time of arrival for food to be at 3pm. Dani asked whether this was a specific time or his gut instinct. Mark said that he hoped Megan and Simba would give them 10 minutes notice to get the food ready, with Victoria suggesting tht they cook the burgers and leave them under the grill to keep warm. On the train ride with Avi and Marnie, she reminded him to stay in character, and she naturally had to take the lead after there had been an explosion as part of their role playing story. Baroness Brady explained that Megan and Simba were making people laugh with the prisoner experience so that was a good thing, and Bradley told Rochelle that she needed to get the food plated as soon as they can.
Dani said to Victoria and Mark that they shouldn't be as relaxed as they are, adding that they needed to know what time the guests would be arriving. Baroness Brady asked Mark why there wasn't a time planned for lunch as he had time with his team in the morning to discuss this. Marnie explained to Avi that some of the food had been sitting on the table for ages, and that he should focus on getting water to every table first, with special drinks being given out later. Rochelle reminded Marnie that the vegan option was thyme and the gluten free option was chive, and we saw Avi taking out the wrong plates to one of the customers who wasn't able to eat meat. Marnie asked Rochelle if the food was in the wrong place, and she said she had organised it perfectly when she initially brought it out of the kitchen. Marnie told the customer that she could eat this new meal guilt free. Megan suggested to Simba that they could try and carry out three plates at the same time, and Mark said to just get the food out because they were just wasting time. Avi also charged one of the guests £5 for a photo who was actually offered free photos as part of their experience, and Simba got a £10 tip from one of their customers.
In the boardroom, Mark explained that the base price for their tickets would be between £150-£200 and that he managed to build rapport with members of the public. After only selling 18 tickets, Megan said that she was hopeful that they would sell all 32 of the tickets. Mark explained to Lord Sugar that the magician wouldn't go lower than £300 and Simba said that one of the guests had asked for a history tour of the prison, which wasn't the experience. Baroness Brady also explained that it took 40 minutes for the first guest to receive their meal and the food service was slow. Avi explained that he wanted to be the project manager as he was clear that it was a profit task, and Bradley explained that he managed to get the price of the pies down from £15 to £8.50, with Rochelle explaining that it was annoying as they weren't able to get sales. Avi said he also tried to get the price of the contortionist as low as possible, getting her from £500 to £275, and also explained that he would be lying if he didn't say he enjoyed the whipping from Marnie. At the end of the challenge, Team Apex spent £2,100, spent £1,113 on food and drinks, with a profit of £121.50 and no refunds. For Team Infinity, they spent £1,484, only spent £620 on food and therefore made a profit of £858, making them the winners of this task. Avi, Rochelle, Bradley and Marnie were all told that they would be going to The Crystal Maze live experience as their treat for winning.
In the losing team, Megan said that the price mark of £180 was very expensive from the beginning. and Mark said that it was Megan and Simba who went for the high pried food. Simba said that the failure of the task was with Mark and the ticketing team, with Megan saying to Mark that because the price tickets were so high, they had to get better food than just pub grub. Victoria said that the failure of the task was with Megan. Mark said he didn't know the location and therefore wasn't able to sell tickets, and Krren said that the description of what he and his sub team were selling, was incorrect. Megan said that they went for the decent food and drinks, for the price of the tickets that they had decided, and Victoria explained that they also wanted to try and sell the tour without the magician in order to make profit. Megan said that even if they had gone for the cheapest option of food, they would have still lost the task because of the ticket prices and lack of sales. Lord Sugar told the candidates who was going to be staying in the boardroom, and let Megan and Simba both go to the house, through to the next task. asking Mark, Dani and Victoria to wait outside the boardroom. Lord Sugar said that Mark makes excuses for things, and they still went for the expensive entertainment option, Dani had a lack of sales, and Victoria is very bright but also didn't sell anything.
Mark explained that the public would not pay £25 for the tickets, with Dani adding that Mark was saying to people how much would they pay for a ticket, and Baroness Brady explaining that they didn't sell the experience. Victoria said that they needed to try and claw back margins or make profits from the ticket sales, and they were unable to do either. Dani explained that she had been on a solid shift throughout the process, and consistent in her performance. Mark explained that he won 5/8 of the tasks he was on, adding that he was trying to get back on track, and Dani explained that the ticket prices were instantly dropped when they had left the morning meting. In the end it was Mark that was fired from the process, and we had our final eight candidates: Marnie, Avi, Rochelle, Bradley, Megan, Simba, Victoria and Megan! Mark said that if he would have been Lord Sugar's business partner, he would have made his money back in the first year. Dani said that they should all be so proud of how well they are all doing, and we found out that the next challenge was for the candidates to make a men's skincare product!
Click here for my video review!
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