eddy

Wine Shop - Bummer getting fired on TV. Drum Shop - Did they need to throw the brother under the bus - again? Shuller BBQ - Why such a big store? And, as with Simple Greek, why don't these folks realize Marcus is a partner and consult him? Furniture Business - Glad the grandfather lived to see the business turnaround. But somebody, please paint over that outdoor mural!

Who in the hell spends $70,000 to produce a run of ice cream that has not been tested on a focus group? The parents should have let the son go take a job where he can use his engineering degree to build highway bridges without first testing a model.

Gee Marcus.... you mean we're supposed to share royalties with you? We're supposed to put in some work? You're always trying to make me the bad guy Marcus.

Marcus just has no luck breaking into the florist business. He's lucky farm girl didn't take his offer - she wouldn't have welcomed his ideas or resources, just his money. She can't get help from the banks or investors, she knows that well funded competition is on her tail, yet she refuses a great offer. Oh well. As far as Simple Greek goes - I don't think big Mike is ever going to change. Just sits back in his recliner and waits for royalty checks. Marcus should have really pushed harder to buy him out, because as the franchise grows the price tag goes up.

... HOWEVER, how is it that Marcus, who owns 46% of the company and is 100% in charge, is completely clueless ... True - but the more interesting parts of these shows is when Marcus takes off for two weeks and returns to a clusterf**k of surprises.

Yep - No amount of editing could change what came out of her mouth to Marcus, or her "Do you want your job?" threat to Cindy, or her lame rationale for the accountant leaving. All on camera. I hope Marcus does a follow-up in the future. And I hope all customers of this toxic company watch the episode.

Now posted by Yelp on the 240Sweet Yelp page after numerous postings by angry viewers: Active Cleanup Alert: This business recently made waves in the news, which often means that people come to this page to post their views on the news. While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to these news events, we do work to remove both positive and negative posts that appear to be motivated more by the news coverage itself than the reviewer’s personal consumer experience with the business. As a result, your posts to this page may be removed as part of our cleanup process beginning Wednesday, January 27, 2016, but you should feel free to post your thoughts about the recent media coverage for this business on Yelp Talk at any time.

I'm curious as well to the terms of the agreement when Marcus decides to walk. He acts like a handshake is all it takes to get his check. Are there additional conditions the viewers are not aware of? At what point does he legally become an owner? I remember the show with the T-shirt printers in New York where Marcus did a follow-up after he walked. He handed them a 1099 tax form which requires the owners to pay income tax on the debt cancellation resulting from Marcus's loss.

You beat me to the Yelp page reference - Yep - People over there are outraged.

Whoa! What did I just watch? Normally not a big fan of the dysfunctional owner type episodes, but watching Sam show her true personality after getting caught in lies and omissions was worth every minute. Part of me thinks Marcus was about to get thrown into the marshmallow mixer (like that scene with the meat grinder in the recent episode of Fargo). Maybe inhaling mustard fumes all day has unwanted consequences. Anyway, I wonder if development of flavored marshmallows on a stick is going on back at the Sweet Pete laboratory :) Ed

I also thought the equipment payback calculations were optimistic. 8 hours/day usage is an assumed number. As for the one guy who can produce twice as much in the same time as others - I'd devote 2 hours of his time each day training others until they come up to speed! Finally, I'm unclear on just what owning 50% of a business entitles Marcus (or any investor) to have. Does he draw a salary (he still devotes time to the business)? Does he just get 50% of the profits after the original owner pays himself a salary? How does Marcus re-coup his original cash investment? Is it over time as he collects profits, or is there an accelerated payback as if treated as a loan?

" ... To the best of my knowledge, these are the ones where Marcus walked" And I can think of a few more where he should have walked away :) But yeah - what a toxic list of businesses! You can fix Product and Process, but People? Not so easy.

I feel bad for the guy who kicked in $50k and works at the shop. Will he ever see his money again? As far as Marcus goes, looks like he lost some time and travel money, but unlike some other episodes gone bust, at least he didn't purchase new machinery, renovate, etc. Guess he's learned to wait before writing checks. The owner? He seems more comfortable running a small garage type of business. Unfortunately he's bleeding money and not likely to attract an investor (at least one that watches the show). Win or lose, lessons to be learned for the viewers.

It means Marcus did not keep much of the company assets / product design / process / branding. He invested and then replaced just about everything to "fix" the company. Much like "fixing" a broken car by replacing it with a new car.

I agree - What Marcus did to "fix" this company is analogous to fixing a broken car by lifting the radiator cap and driving a new car underneath.

The info graphic in this episode showed they were using Keystone pricing. The price doubles every time the product changes hands in the supply chain. So yes, the "guy at the end", AKA the distributer does get a commission: $7. The retail store makes $14. The candle company makes $7 minus the cost to produce & overhead. 7 + 7 + 14 = $28 retail sell price.

We'll, I don't know about anyone getting rich off this deal. There's nothing proprietary about the product(s). Anyone can make scented candles as demonstrated by the minimal equipment in the start-up garage. They have to sell the candle for $7 so the distributor can sell it for $14 so the store can sell it for $28. I thought the guy at the production facility was quoting close to $7 to make the candle. I just don't see the potential for a commodity product like this in a high-competition market. I saw this episode as one made for the TV audience as opposed to one made for TV + Marcus's empire. But I did enjoy him giving a garage-based start-up a lesson in business and a possible chance to go big. I just didn't see it as a good investment. Maybe a future update episode will prove me wrong.

Too bad Marcus could not have started with just the dream team of the franchisee and the chef. The chef knows how to make an award winning burger, and the franchisee who just joined knows the business, the proper numbers and what the menu should look like. The rest of the guys don’t bring anything to the party except chaos. I don't think one or two private discussions with Marcus are going to turn around a hot-head personality.

Overall a very good episode. I was shocked that before Marcus took over, the lanolin product was only 3% of total sales. That means all that other crap was 97% of sales. Somebody is a very good salesperson to get P.O.'s for what appear to be mediocre products. I guess the philosophy was, put a bunch of stuff out there and see what sells. Clearly the owners needed outside guidance, even for obvious decisions (Filling bottles by hand? Swastika logo? Dead inventory? Non-productive floor space?) Good thing that logo didn’t get printed on thousands of dollars of packaging! I really liked how Marcus re-focused the company (and with minimal drama). It was a show any business owner could learn from, which is why I watch it. To me THAT is entertainment.

I tend to agree that some designs are over the top. I think there is a fine line between an attractive store environment and one that is overwhelming. The danger of having too much "flash" is that customers realize the store overhead is embedded in the product pricing. That's why so many people shop at the mall and check for lower prices on Amazon, while in the store, before buying. It's why customers are willing to shop in a warehouse - I suspect Costco goes out of their way to look barebones to promote the idea their product markup is minimal. I enjoyed this episode, but it was another "Watch Marcus build an empire" story. He was obviously looking for a company like this to support his other businesses. If you're going to spend money on remodeling multiple businesses, may as well keep it in the family. We've had two episodes in a row with sane owners. But looking at the previews for next week, I think it's back to crazy town.

I agree - it's a good episode. And no murals! I think Dean got more criticism than he deserved. He's obviously got the ability to come up with great concepts. With the right software those concepts can be turned into manufacturing drawings that show exactly how everything fits together. It was as if the workers were going strictly off the concept drawings for Camping World. The two "tests" to show their abilities before getting the check was a new twist for this show. Reminded me of the Apprentice a little bit.

Yeah - we get to see what car Marcus is driving, what card is in his wallet, AT&T on the computer, etc. Reminds me of those movies where people are sitting around drinking Pepsi and every pop can in the scene is turned so the logo faces the camera. I guess it's all supposed to be a subliminal message for weak minds. Excuse me while I go grab another can of Pepsi out of the fridge.

The one guy who looked like he had no awareness up front was the accountant brought in towards the end. He looked like he was sweating bullets as if to say, "Don't try to associate me with these books!". The company should be named FoolFood

The mural was a bit much. I would have used an interior wall of the factory instead.