麻豆约拍

Retail guru Mary Portas is back and she's just in time. As the High Street reels from the public's love affair with the major supermarkets, the nation's independent retailers need her help more than ever. Stalwart indies such as greengrocers and bakers are disappearing in their hundreds but not all is lost. Times may be tougher than ever but Mary believes that small shopkeepers willing and able to adapt can still thrive.

Mary tackles Chris and Juliet, a London couple who are running a beautiful Dorset village shop into the ground. The couple bought Clealls of Corfe Castle a year ago, but are haemorrhaging almost 6000 pounds a month and now stand to lose their savings, their pension and their home. The shop is more mini-mart than country store, and the locals and tourists are heading for the hills.

Mary must teach the couple about taste, incorporate them into village life and invent 'country convenience' that can compete with the supermarket delivery vans. But the shopkeepers don't care about food and hide away from locals, who view them as outsiders. Unless Mary can turn around the owners, the shop and the village that's ignoring them, this business will go the same way as the 500 other village shops that are closing every year.