9 June 2011 | Paul Snell
BBC1
Wednesdays, 9pm
★ ★ ★ ★
London hotel The Savoy needed a few items before its grand reopening, and this set the scene for this year’s hapless hopefuls to demonstrate once again that a career in buying really is not for everybody.
There were certainly some interesting tactics on display. We had team leader Susan’s assertion that products get cheaper the further East you go (perhaps she has experience sourcing from China?). There was Natasha, whose strategy appeared to be start low, and drive the price up (in hindsight it was probably lucky she didn’t get the chance to complete her negotiation). There was even an attempt to ring up a rival procurement department to find out who their suppliers were.
Practical tips were thin on the ground, although Jim – who appears to be one of the few candidates with a bit of credibility (which probably means by the time you read this he will have been given the boot) – was keen to highlight the importance of relationships. “People buy from people,” he said.
It just left Nick Hewer to coin a withering put-down I hope will become a cult phrase to use when highlighting a ridiculous buying decision: “The King of Tonga doesn’t go looking for bargains.”
