Mary Queen of Shops now BBC2

Anyone watching it?

This woman is amazing.. talk about head in the sand. She thinks everyone wants things the way they've always been. No wonder there are so many crappy shops in the UK.

It is classic!! Still once you get stuck in your way it's hard to change.

Unf**king believable, so bitter, people like her deserve to fail.

Wow, talk about denial!

Agree. feel sorry for the baker

This kind of thing is at the root of a lot of problems with british retail I reckon.

I went to Tallinn a few years ago, every business was brand new (since de-communisation) and everyone had huge pride in what they were doing and was trying dead hard to be good and offer something unique and great to their customers.. the end results was a brilliant place to hang out, shop and eat.

Trust me working in the main supply business to the bakery trade I'm not at all surprised, 90% of them still think its 1973.

Good to see Hob's House bakery getting a bit of publicity, great people with a superb approach & a fantastic range of produce 🙂

Isn't she the Gran out of Catherine Tate? "what a facking liberty!" 😆

I quite fancy Mary…I'd love to have a failing business and have her come in and order me around for a few weeks 😳

My missus has just informd me Mary is gay. And that wifey was a silly old ingrate!

Mary gay?
Surely not!

The end of another fantasy

Those bakers should take a day trip to Paris and take a look at a few patisseries, taste the quality that these shops purvey.

They they might then realise that they are churning out a load of greasy, bland mediocrity. This assumes that they have funtioning tastebuds and aren't too thick skinned.

No wonder people like this woman are struggling.

Same problem with lots of shops here in our small town, they all complain about supermarkets but can't accept that their own poor product/service/presentation is at the root of all their problems.
If you want another example of a great bakery business see "The Town Bakery" in Lyme Regis.

she used to be married but then changed her mind

Isn't she the Gran out of Catherine Tate? "what a facking liberty!"

Exactly what I said to mrs B

If there was no problem and the woman knew what her customers wanted, why was Mary there in the first place?

I also wonder about how the pre-screening was done. I'm sure loads of shops wanted Mary's expertise and I can't imagine that the shop owners didn't know what they were letting themselves in for.

what an absolute plum that woman was!!! o well have it her way and fail is she wishes, tough sh!t for her… cant say mary didnt try!

also mary reminds me of florence from florence and the machine.

I agree with bikemonkey, there must be an element of wanting at least one episode with material that makes for "interesting TV" in the series – just found this article and comment which suggests something along those lines, too…

I also think that the programme ultimately helped Angela the bossy baker, she just has to implement some changes to her "product portfolio" cause lots of people will now want to check out her bakery/coffee shop, and if she offers some of the artisan breads, she'll have lots of new customers 🙄

Good to see Hob's House bakery getting a bit of publicity, great people with a superb approach

Yes, the bakers she visited were all smiles and professionalism, passion for their job – and they were young too.

She has deep psychological insecurity issues clearly. I think perhaps a lot of Brits do in that position. I do think Mary could've picked up on how it and helped her out more sympathetically. Maybe they could've had a psychologist on like they did with the food phobia programmes – single person run businesses have a lot to do with psychology.

On the subject of bakeries, I went round our local bakeries where I lived at the time, thinking I'd patronise local businesses etc – none of their breads were as good as Tesco.

@ bikemonkey

My thoughts exactly. I wonder sometimes whether the program makers stick a real awkward one in every so often…because it's "good tv". I do like Portas though…she genuinely believes in championing small retailers. But that woman tonight…there was just a bad feeling from the very outset. Her son should have stood up to her too.

I don't like seeing any small business fail, but sometimes, they just bring it on themselves.

Stats say that 90% or whatever of small businesses fail in their first year – well it's cost most of them are crap, or at best nothing new!

That woman was a nightmare! I'm sure the stubbornness somehow all stems back to her husband – not wanting to let go of what they had together when he was the baker and not wanting Paul to outshine him. I felt really sorry for Paul because he seemed like a great bloke and his skill was blindingly obvious – a proper craftsman.

I also wonder about how the pre-screening was done. I'm sure loads of shops wanted Mary's expertise and I can't imagine that the shop owners didn't know what they were letting themselves in for.

It's like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares or Property Ladder with Sarah Beeny – if the punter says "you're right, Gordon, the curry is crap, I'll stick to serving a small number of freshly prepared steak dishes in my steakhouse, and what's more I will fire my brother as the maitre d because it's clear he knows nothing about food or customer service" it would be a pretty tedious episode. What they want is people who have crap restaurants/shops/development ideas *and* are completely delusional about their own capabilities so that we can poke them with sticks and laugh at them.

There are now 3 "artisan style bread shops" in Chiswick. I'm really amazed that there's the Market for that many people buying quite small loaves at £5. Admittedly some do work for me whilst still complaining that they don't earn enough.

What do you do aP that needs bakers to work for you?

Btw Konabunny, I tend to think of this kind of programming, when done well, as instructional. That is, how not to run a business or how not to be a complete knob. Some of the more commercial ones on Channel 4 or Sky are worse though, because they are blatantly goading normal people into conflict situations. Last night's show was not in that category though I feel.

The woman definitely was not very open to change and was rather controlling of her staff to say the least. BUT:
Mary was going around telling her what to do 'because I know best'. I can see that attitude getting up most people's noses tbh. Esp if they've run a business ok for 30+ years
I think Mary's bright enough to have seen that a less confrontational, dictatorial approach would have been more effective with someone like that, but clearly decided it would make a better TV programme if she went in like she did. A lot of rather bitchy comments to camera…

Put it this way, I never watch programmes like that and here I am posting on STW about it, so unfortunately she wins 🙁

I tend to think of this kind of programming, when done well, as instructional. That is, how not to run a business or how not to be a complete knob.

Oh, no, I agree – I would actually like to see more of Ramsay showing the guys what to do on a practical basis and less of the confrontational bollocks.

Ramsay's programmes have annoyed me in the past, but I saw one where he tried to re-invigorate this BBQ diner in America, it was really good. He taught them how to run a business, and they partially listened.. leading to a combination of train-wreck TV, business instruction and psychology 🙂

As for Mary's approach – yes, she should have been a lot more sensitive, but her bitchy comments to camera seemed to show how genuinely totally frustrated and wound up she'd become. That was her problem really, letting it get to her.

Mary gay?
Surely not!

She's about to marry her girlfriend, so I'd think so.

The end of another fantasy

But the start of another, better, one?

That bakery will be out of business within 12 months of the new Waitrose opening on the same street.
Shame to see a local shop go but it's completely the fault of the owner.

if a woman with hair as bad as Mary's came into my family business (hypothetically speaking as I don't have one!) I don't I would be able to take her seriously! 😛

we enjoyed the show and thought it was a good start to the series, our favourite from the last series was the Oxfam store.

but it all comes down to the edit at the end, we see what we are allowed to see and from this comes a story.