Might as well start this week’s thread now, since I can’t find last week’s. Reality News Online has an interview with Sam (link) that I thought was pretty entertaining.
and this gem:
Lots of great stuff – what a nutjob he is!
That is the most utterly deluded person I have ever heard. What a total nutjob! I just watched this episode again last night, and I found him even more obnoxious than the first time. I’m glad he’s gone, but I’m curious to see who the next designated wingnut will turn out to be. Probably Ohmygosha.
I liked when Sam was whining about how the reason he failed was because the others didn’t respect him. It didn’t seem to occur to him that respect is something that has to be earned.
I also liked when Kwame said, “I’ll tell you to your face, I don’t respect you.” Kwame’s an early favorite for me. He seems smart and he doesn’t come off like such a dickhead.
Sam was completely incompetent in every way.
I do wish they’d have a competition that the women couldn’t win by flirting and showing cleavage, though. That haggling competition was especially unfair to the guys. Of course some middle aged shop owner is going to be nicer to a gaggle of flirty young women than a bunch of type-A guys in suits. That Heidi, in particular, is a total skeeve.
Woo! Some agrees with me (I mentioned this in last week’s thread). I don’t know why they didn’t have 2 teams composed of both males and females (ala the majority of Survivor seasons). Right now, the women are just flashing their tops (essentially) while the men have no such luxury. One person in last week’s thread stated that just means the men need to “work twice as hard”, which is bullshit. That’s like having a jump rope competition between someone who’s capable and someone who’s wheel chair bound. It’s not fair to expect more of an individual just because they have a handicap.
Grr, I really wish we could edit.
In my above post, some=someone
Men lose again. It’s going to be interesting to see how the women react the Trump telling them to tone down the sexuality.
I thought the whole task tonight was kind of bogus. What is the team supposed to do that actually proves anything about managment skills? The men’s team was criticized for not running around the restaurant seeing what needed to be done – but wtf are they supposed to discern about a huge operation like that in a single shift?
This was really loaded in favor of the women. All they did was shake their tits in tight t-shirts. Of course they’re going to sell more shots. Hopefully the warning about sexuality will get through to them but I don’t think they really got it.
[snotty bimbo voice] Can WE help it if we’re attractive? [/snotty bimbo voice]
I think Nick is a raging asshole and I hope hope he goes next. I kind of felt sorry for the fat guy but he really has been an ineffectual failure. I thought Kwame’s autograph stunt was hilarious and it seemed like it was working. I’m still rooting for him to win.
I thought the fat guy was too wishy-washy on everything though. He was always on the fence, never for or against anything.
About the guys working twice as hard - someone pointed out last week that they should have hired a model to sell that lemonade in the first episode (genius)…it’s not about the guys working twice as hard, it’s about them being smarter. And they’re not. Not that I could do any better against a bunch of girls, but that’s why I’m not in the business world 
I think there’s a lot of guys out there who would do better than this crop.
“You’re fired” (pointing with entire hand and recoiling it) - that’s catchy, I’ve been saying that to my wife the last week, it’s driving her crazy.
I’m glad they’re mixing the teams next week to include men and women, otherwise the show was running the risk of becoming anti-climactic really fast. What sucks is that they could’ve kept men vs women if only the producers could’ve thought of challenges that didn’t allow the women to use sex to win.
Kwame’s little stunt wasn’t unethical at all, it was brilliant and hilarious. He never claimed he was a pro athlete or other celebrity. Why would anyone assume that just because he’s young, black and athletic, he must be in the NBA or NFL? Heck, I wouldn’t have hesitated to ask him “What do you do?”
As the someone in question, I take exception with your assertion (and your somehwhat strained analogy). So not having t*ts is a handicap, now? What I said last week, and what I continue to maintain, is that the guys simply have to use their brains a little more to combat the rather obvious and somewhat pathetic -however effective- tactics of Team Protege. Troy’s idea of Kwame signing the memorabilia is, however you feel about it ethically, a perfect example of this. My stomach turns at the thought of using such a hackneyed corporate phrase, but yes, they have to start… (takes a long breath) Thinking Outside The Box oh geez that’s a sickening thing to say I’m sorry I don’t know why I did it.
Personally I’d have used the seed money (or any prizes I could get donated for free advertising) and sponsored a huge “Movie Trivia” contest that I’d promote at libraries, movie theaters, etc… Or, failiing that, a wet jock strap contest.
What was appalling to me was that neither team developed a plan or strategy. Here’s these supposedly savy business types, and they don’t even come up with any ideas on how to attract business for one day at an “admitted” dying restaurant chain.
If I was Trump I would have asked “What was your plan before you started? Did you even have a plan? How can you tackle a project without even having a strategy before you begin?”
No one launched a fresh idea on this one and I would have attacked all members of both teams and called them all failures.
Was it me? Or was this challenge incredibly dumb?
I know nothing about restaurants, admittedly, but it seems like they do fluctuate from day to day - that the trend of patrons is more important than a single night, that one day is not nearly enough time to create a strategy to get people to come into the restaurant, and that you’re far to dependent on just pure luck (night of the week, climate, rain, what’s going on across the street, etc.) as to whether people are going to come in or not. “Running” the failing corpse of a restaurant for a night - not a very good task.
Neither team impressed me that much this week. (I thought the “Meet Kwame” scheme was hilarious. Troy was even saying “He works on Wall Street!” No one was pretending he was anything other than guy in NY. Nothing the least bit unethical about it.)
I am glad the girls were finally called on the “dress like a slut to get money” strategy…which they’ve very much overused. It isn’t corporate, it isn’t professional. This week was just too tacky.
I’m also glad they’re splitting the teams. 8 against 4 would just have been pathetic.
Although the “shooters girls” idea had my eyes gazing in astonishment at the inside wall of my skull, I do give the women credit for focusing on one big-money idea: push the liquor sales. I think they would’ve won without the tight t-shirts, or even without drinking with the customers, because the men came up with no comparable idea for actually getting product into customers’ hands.
Actually, I think the “sexy advantage” of the women is being overblown. Not that they aren’t abusing the cleavage, because they are, but I think they’d have won the negotiating, restaurant and ad campaign challenges without shaking their money makers because they had better ideas than the men. Not great ideas, mind you – the ad campaign was admittedly bad, but at least made an effort to give the client what he wanted – but better ideas than their competition, which is all that really matters.
I lost a lot of respect for Amy this week, though, with her “we can’t help it if we’re hot!” comments.
I’m surprised Nick was kept around. Sulking when things aren’t going your way is pathetic. (This also takes care of my 4th-degree connection to the show – Bowie is a friend’s cousin’s friend. Rumor was he won, because he quit his job and instituted some “major life changes,” but apparently rumor is wrong yet again.)
Also, I was cracking up during the “heated” confrontation between Jessie and the woman criticizing the appetizer-table setup. That was the mellowist verbal catfight I’ve ever seen.
I’ll disagree with you, Hampshire. Both teams did pursue a strategy. I wasn’t explicitly stated, but it was there.
First of all, both teams pursued a sales strategy rather than an operational strategy. Given one night, they couldn’t make any major operational changes, of course, but we didn’t see them exploring this avenue at all. My initial thought upon learning of the challenge was that they could put some manpower towards turning the tables faster–bussing, expediting, etc. then it became apparent that there was no wait for tables. Oops. We didn’t see either team asking about this possibility, but I’d love to know if they did.
I don’t like how the women flaunted their boobies, but they won because they used better strategies.
There are some basic tenets of the restaurant biz that are well-known, and I’d definitely expect business-minded people to know. The first three, of course, are “location, location, location.” After that, the #1 rule is that the bar is the biggest moneymaker. There is a huge profit margin, and it’s far easier to get someone to order a second drink than additional food. There is only so much that people are going to eat. Restaurants do try to bump up their food sales, especially with things like suggestive selling (“would you like some pizza shooters or extreme fajitas?”) and that certainly makes sense–it will certainly add up over time–but I think that there are other areas that would be more fruitful if you’re trying to effect a one-day sales increase.
Both teams did try to get more people in the door, which would have been a great way to increase sales, but the women quickly saw that it wasn’t that effective, and put their energies elswhere, while the men kept at it all night. The women did better with the merchandise than men, but again, they saw better opportunities. As the one woman pointed out, she could spend 25 minutes selling a $20 t-shirt or 3 minutes selling $20 worth of shots. Whether you think the autograph think was clever or creepy, it certainly didn’t produce a lot of sales, so I’d call it a failure.
So, the women won because they sold the heck out of the drinks.
And the men totally could have pursued a “sex-sells” strategy to sell drinks if they had wanted to. As others have said, they could have hired a model. Or they could have just made like the women and used themselves. Look how those ladies in the TKTS line opened their wallets when Troy turned on the charm! Given that the clientele of Planet Hollywood is probably all tourists, I could see how some tourist women out for a good time in the big city could be charmed into having more drinks. Besides, as someone said, the men were out in front saying there was a “big party” in the bar, but when the people got there, there was nothing. They could have stationed Bowie out in front as the pitchman (he was good at that) and put the other guys up in the bar working the crowd.
I’m glad Trump told the ladies to tone down the sexuality, though. I never thought I’d say such a thing about The Donald, but I thought he handled it in a tactful, polite, and classy way. The guy may be laughable in almost every visible way, but he obviously has some excellent interpersonal skills.
OK, first things first: I’m sad that Bowie is gone. I really enjoyed saying “Bowie Hogg!!!” in a really loud Texas drawl. Hi-larious! I caught his interviews on both the Today show and CNBC today, and he has been by far the nicest, most well-spoken person fired. He seems like a genuinely nice guy…but he did fail miserably at the merchandising.
Having Kwame sign autographs…a genius move when backed up against the wall. I also thought giving the wait staff a pep talk and having a competition would help the guys out…get the wait staff pushing booze and you’ve got 15 people per shift added to your team.
The women: augh!!! Parading around in a tight, skimpy outfit and DOING SHOTS with the customers? Yeah, it increases your bar sales but one liability lawsuit and your measly $2K in liquor sales seems small. The general manager had to step in and warn them about it. OTOH, the guys policed themselves and shot down the sidewalk vodka sale.
After four shows I’m ashamed to be a guy. It’s pitiful how easily a man can be manipulated in ANY situation involving money if a woman shakes her boobs.
That being said: Nick, you whiner: suck it up and work for the team. You’re NOT the team leader, you’re NOT being asked to participate in something you disagree with, so why check out? Will you always do this when something doesn’t go your way? I think we have a potential mini-Sam shaping up here. (Heh. Mini-Sam.)
At least next week:
They mix the teams up so the “sex sells” won’t give one team an advantage. Each team can now shake their own “moneymakers”.
OK, say it with me one last time:
Bowie Hogg!!!
I just realized that I might have seemed a bit hypocritical in my above post. I criticized the women for using their sexuality, and then I suggested that the men do the same thing. I should clarify. The thing that bugs about the womens is not that they made a strategic decision to use their assets, but that they just seemed to switch into jiggling mode whenever they thought it would help. Instead of saying something like: “We could use our seed money to hire models.” “Hey, we’re attractive. We could act like models ourselves!” “Good idea. Who’s up for acting like a model?” they just seemed to be perfectly comfortable flaunting themselves.
I’m not going to say that it isn’t “businesslike” to use your boobies to sell drinks–one of the common things that I’ve seen over the years among successful business owners is a willingness to get their hands dirty, and to do whatever needs doing, even if it is not an “executive” type thing. But there is a big difference between playing the role of a beer girl for an evening because you really need to boost sales that day and acting like a beer girl all the time.
Think she meant that ironically.
Yeah, the veil’s really been lifted from my eyes with Jessie. I knew she was too sweet and normal to be true; they eighty-six one of her ideas and she pouts and whines like a first-grader. I was half-expecting for her to stick her thumb in her mouth.
Totally agree about Nick, too- his true colors are starting to emerge, much as he’s been trying to play the “silent partner” while everyone else implodes. Did you see that evil grin he couldn’t hide when Trump gave Bowie the boot? His ego must have soared when he heard Trump say, I want to see you as leader next week, Nick. But that wasn’t so much an admission of respect for the guy as it was a challenge- Trump wants him to prove he has some ideas/balls of his own!
By the way, what was that little “I-won’t-forget-you-Sam” pledge Nick gave at the beginning of the show? All of a sudden they were buds?! That’s somewhat disturbing- not only is Nick not a team player, but he isn’t upfront about anything, including any warm ties he may have shared with Sam. I’m starting to think this guy would stab someone in the heart if it would keep him out of the boardroom.