The Apprentice, episode 10: review

The story so far

Last week, the teams battled it out to make and market their own biscuit brand. Some half-baked ideas, a ninth win for Helen Milligan and a firing for Zoe Beresford.

The task

Week ten and six remain. Meeting in Enfield, North London, at a wholesaler warehouse, The Apprentice teams were given a range of goods worth £250 to sell. The products ranged from nodding dogs, umbrellas, pressure washers and sunglasses. Ultimately, the task was to flog as much as possible. They then had to sniff out the best-selling items and replenish their stocks. The Apprentice team left with the greatest assets in stock and money in their hands would win.

What happened

Melody Hossaini took the lead for The Apprentice‘s Team Logic. Natasha Scribbins was head honcho for Team Venture.

Team Venture started off well, selling three nodding dogs for £7.50 in Hackney (where people clearly have appalling taste) along with a number of umbrellas and sunglasses. Susan Ma was sent door-to-door selling duvets and towels. Unfortunately, she failed to sell a thing.

Meanwhile, Melody and Helen on Team Logic had a different tactic, heading off to London’s East End to try to sell the stock to retailers (NB: They may have missed the point that retailers could just buy this stuff themselves). Tom Pellereau was left on the South Bank, trying to lure tourists with the nodding dogs and other smaller goods. 

Cringeworthy moments

• Helen decided she had had enough of the way things were going and approached Melody about taking over the role as team leader. Ouch. Unsurprisingly, Melody said no.
• Susan falling asleep in the taxi (those door-to-door sales must have really tired her out).
• Melody and Helen going into a pound shop and trying to sell the owner watches for £25.
• The sheer volume of tense, awkward arguments between Susan and Natasha.

The winners

Susan did well by picking up more than £100 worth of bracelets and selling them on for a tidy profit. Jim ended up with 23 umbrellas but had no time to sell them. Fail.

Natasha didn’t get what the task was about at all. Lord Sugar fined her £100 for having “no balls, no guts and no investment”.

Down to the numbers…

Team Logic’s total sales and stock amounted £1,204. They’d spent £476, which made their total assets £728. 

Team Venture’s total sales and stock came to £1,154. They’d spent £303 so their total assets (including the fine) came to £751. 

A win for Team Venture by just £23.

Fired

The claws were out this week. Tom, Melody and Helen received the ultimate grilling from Lord Sugar. Helen was questioned over her decision to try and take the lead role from Melody. After a considerable amount of waffling from Melody, backstabbing from Tom and convincing from Helen, Lord Sugar decided that it was “with regret” that he had to say goodbye to Melody.

Verdict

So, Melody got the boot. A loss for The Apprentice? Probably not. As one of our readers highlighted, “I haven’t come across anyone so full of hot air in some time”.

We were disappointed that Team Venture wasn’t pulled into the boardroom this week – we might have finally got rid of Natasha. How she is still in for the running is beyond us. Jim’s selling skills were excellent on this task and it was also good to see Tom holding his ground and standing up for himself. He’s definitely one to watch.

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