Week 8 of The Apprentice and the candidates met up at Saint Bartholomew the Great church where they were told they will be selling wedding merchandise at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham. Leading Alpha this week is Lucinda, with Helane the team leader for Renascence.
Before they begin trying to sell the merchandise at the NEC, the teams are in London sourcing the products to sell. Besides a wedding dress, each team must sell an additional item. To start, both teams meet Ian Stewart, a wise move as he has won best designed wedding dress for the last four years running! They also pay a visit to BHS, before turning to cake tasting.

Looking at cake, Raef and Claire consider selling plus size dresses and cakes as a package deal. Claire questioned whether that was a good idea, to which Reaf responded “these girls are size 16 to 32 for a reason, they like cake”! Alpha opted for the top shelf designer dresses from Ian Stewart whereas Renascence went for the mid-range. As a bonus for choosing the top dresses, Alpha also manage to bag lingerie to sell too.

At the NEC, the teams seem to have got have of their product range half right, with Renascence selling the mid-range dresses but not the cakes; whilst Alpha had trouble shifting the Ian Stewart dresses which retail at up to £2500! However, Lee for Alpha was on the charm offensive selling plenty of lingerie and gifts. The sales pitch at Renascence was not going quite to plan as Michael and Sara are pushy towards perspective buyers, often putting them off.

In the boardroom, Alpha team members were all in praise for Lucinda as leader this week. Nick commented on the good sales from Lee and Claire. Sir Alan then revealed that team Alpha won and as such were treated to a Spa session. With Renascence left in the boardroom, it was time for everyone to justify themselves. For Alex, this must be second nature by now as Sir Alan points out “you’ve been on the loosing team for six of the eight weeks so far”, and he clearly was. His justification was three quarters of the sales made were made by him this week and was duly allowed to return to the house for another week, leaving Helene, Michael and Sara in the boardroom.

Once again, the buck passing begins, with Michael blaming Helene, Helene blaming Sara with Sara denying that she went on a hard sell and suggested Michael’s time is up. With Sir Alan getting to the end of his tether, proclaiming “I can’t stand anymore bickering”, he was nearing a decision. “Sara I’m tired of hearing that you do nothing. If you gave your customers the hard sell like you’re talking to me now, I’d put your face in the bloody cake!” With that, Sir Alan made his decision, “Sara You’re Fired!”
But it wasn’t over; Sir Alan was eyeing another candidate to fire. Maybe he has a taste for double firings now after last week. After Michael gave the usual “please give me another chance to prove myself and let me project manage next week” routine, Sir Alan decided to give him his wish, and let him and Helene return to the house.

So with Michael continuing to hang by a thread for another week, did Sir Alan make the right decision? Head over to the forum now to leave your comments >>