A Frozen Frenzy Pound Shop Wars

The question I get asked mostly in here, believe it or not,

is "How much is this?"

-How much is this?

-That is the truth!

How much are these?

HE CACKLES

There are shops which promise to leave customers quids in...

It must cost more to make than what they're selling it.

How they do it, I'll never know.

..and they've put many of us under a spell.

-That's a pound!

-I think it's great.

We're always in pound shops!

I like a bargain.

SHE TITTERS

But not everyone's crazy about the pound shop invasion.

-They're popping up everywhere.

-It's a con.

I think, with the pound shops,

we're all going to need hard hats before long, just to make a living.

For the boss of Poundworld, it's a cut-price,

cut-throat battle for the one pound crown.

You come to work every day, gumshield in, shin pads on,

get on with it.

This time...

-Ch-ching!

-SHE LAUGHS

..a new wave of designer pound stores flood Britain...

It's a bit posher than your average pound shop, isn't it?

Yeah, I've come in to spend all my money.

..that could leave the old guard behind.

We do do design, but that is our design.

And a Frozen frenzy hits the high street.

Er, I've got everything!

But Chris's stock is stuck on the slow boat from China.

It's a million-plus bet

and you just hope you come through it the other side.

Pound shops - long notorious for stocking yesterday's trends

and looky-likey versions of the big brands.

The big thing, right, is the perfumes.

They do, kind of like a remake of Jimmy Choo.

They look similar, but they're not.

It's quite funny when you actually do see it, like.

But this year, Poundworld want to prove

they're no Mickey Mouse operation.

MUSIC: When You Wish Upon A Star from Disney's Pinocchio

So they've gone and done a deal

to stock the very latest worldwide phenomenon -

Disney's Frozen.

Right, so we can put a tick next to these.

It's head buyer Nicola Bartram's job to spearhead this company first,

and try to turn movie magic into pound shop gold.

Frozen. It is huge.

The film was released last year and nobody expected it to be

the box office smash that it was, so, we are going Frozen crazy.

These are official Disney-approved header boards which will

go in every store.

So, hopefully, nobody should miss that we sell Disney Frozen.

The advertising may be sorted

but the sudden popularity of Frozen means there's just a few months

to source, manufacture and ship 80 new products from China

in time for the run-up to Christmas.

-It is blurred.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

This is the type of thing I have to work from. Things like this.

So this is a girl's shower cap

available in three assorted designs with Olaf, Elsa and Anna.

A few blurred images from the Far East but, if I don't buy it,

then we don't have the products.

Nicola has ordered everything she can put a Frozen logo on,

from snowmen socks to Anna and Elsa bath sponges.

From what we're hearing, Elsa is most popular at the moment.

Often does tend to be the case.

We often find that the blonde princesses are a lot more

popular than the redheads or the brunettes!

It's the biggest ever deal between Disney and a pound shop,

so new ground for CEO, Chris Edwards.

Working on the market, never, ever did I think

I'd be signing agreements for licences with Disney.

I never thought that would ever happen.

And this shows you how far we've come in such a short while.

It's only been 50 years!

HE CHORTLES

Frozen is the biggest animated film of all time

and worth 1 billion in global sales.

It seems everyone has seen it.

I like that one, you know,

# Do you want to be the snowman? #

I always have this song in my head, you know the, how's it go?

# Let it go, let it go!

# Can't hold it back any more

# Let it go!

# Let it go! #

What are they letting go of? I wonder what they're letting go of?

# The cold doesn't bother me anyway... #

It's AMAZING!

For those who have got in early, the film is a merchandiser's dream.

You can dress up.

Get the hair and make-up.

Eat the cake!

And even meet Elsa.

Would you like to sing Let It Go?

With dresses alone selling on eBay for £140,

the Yorkshire pound chain should be quids-in

IF they get their stock soon.

Nearly all of Nicola's four million Frozen items are being made

here in China.

To get ahead of the competition,

Chris has come to Shanghai to sweet-talk his supply chain.

The power of the place. You can feel the energy when you get here.

Without China, we wouldn't have a business.

He's been doing deals here for over 15 years.

When I first came, it was really overwhelming

and did seem exotic, did seem strange, but I've been coming

so long, you just take it as normal.

But there's one thing this ex-market trader still hasn't got the hang of.

I'm not too clever with Chinese food. Not proper.

Chinese as we know it, that's fine, but Chinese as the Chinese know it,

that's a complete different meal. And I leave it out, for definite.

Tonight, Chris is going to have to go native.

Apparently, it's fashionable to be a little bit late.

Billy Singh runs Chris's brand-new office in Shanghai.

How do you switch on?

He's laid on a lavish banquet to help Chris woo some of the top suppliers.

It also gives me pleasure to introduce to everybody

Dustin Hoffman... No, sorry, not Dustin Hoffman!

-Come on, let's get started.

-Wow!

Let's get the old tools ready.

Right, we're off.

SINGING BLARES IN BACKGROUND

They're slipping but there's no power.

Actually, we've got a spoon here.

That spoon there you can use.

Billy, I'm not giving in and then you laugh at me!

In China, it's not what you know but WHO you know,

and Chris wants to build relationships.

Cheers.

Cheers, then, Kwatpak.

Hi.

It's Chinese tradition that the host must have a drink

with every one of his guests.

This is Doris. Doris ain't exactly a Chinese name, is it?

I must admit, it's quite a good tradition.

I think I'm going to introduce it at home, as well.

I think I'll get everybody into it!

I stopped counting after about eight.

So I've said, "Cheers, thank you very much," so many times

and have a sip of different drinks, I'm ready for going home soon.

Thank you very much. Cheers.

Chris may have put in the hard yards, but it's now up

to his suppliers to deliver all 80 Frozen lines in time for Christmas.

GONG

Do you want a bag? That comes to £17.05.

Cheers, mate.

Thanks to China, pound shops are now a staple of our high streets,

part of a discount market worth £36 billion.

And the people who love them most are the oldies.

We're in the pound shop to have a look what they've got. Yeah.

To see what's not.

You'll not get it anywhere if it's not in here.

Me and me friend, Vera, we always go in and we buy no end from 'em.

You get good bargains.

But there's one pensioner they haven't yet reached.

Pall Mall in London is home to the Queen.

Currently, Her Majesty doesn't have a local pound shop.

But that's all about to change.

SHE WOLF-WHISTLES

Beautiful!

Sara Melin and George Wu run a pound shop with a difference.

The Poundshop is a designer pop-up shop.

We sell products for £1.

The concept was, let's make an affordable design shop.

Everything is really cheap

but everything's actually really, really nice.

Theirs might be a designer pound shop

but they do have some things in common with the high-street version.

We have a big range of different things.

So you know when you go into a pound shop you can get your tea lights

and your toilet brush and your toilet paper...

Now I'm just going down the toilet route here. That's just...

I'm going to mix it up a little bit. Any ball!

And that's kind of the same thing you can do with us, I think.

Except ours will be made by...an amazing designer.

Hopefully.

Their next pop-up will be a Christmas shop

at the Institute of Contemporary Art,

just down the road from Buckingham Palace.

That's really exciting -

it's probably going to be the closest pound shop to the Queen...

-I think.

-Yeah, we're hoping that she will come.

-I'm hoping she'll come, too.

-DOORBELL RINGS

Sara and George choose what goes on the shelves

from hundreds of ideas submitted by designers.

So what kind of product is fit for the Queen?

-You're a no, for sure.

-Hm.

They are geometric charcoal drawing shapes...

Oh, right.

So you draw with them like this... I guess?

I like the cute, funny things -

that's why I like pound shops. But you're are a serious,

-very conscientious design lady...

-Hm-mm.

-..and like very well-made things.

-Hm-mm.

-Wood.

-Yes, mainly out of wood.

-Anything that's out of wood.

-Anything that's in wood.

Oh, look!

Is it wood?

-LAUGHING:

-It's a piece of wood!

-Cool!

-DOORBELL RINGS

Over the years, their pound shop has expanded

to include higher price bands,

but the £1 items remain their biggest and best sellers.

It's the surprise element of, "Actually, wow, this is really lovely and it's only £1."

People go mad for the £1s.

They just have their baskets and they go, "Oh...!"

OK, next one.

Their previous pop-up sold over 11,000 £1 products

in just two days.

How much are they?

-I think they're both one.

-Yeah?

-This is totally our type of thing...

-Yeah.

-..I think.

-It's really nicely made. I like these.

-Yes, me too.

They are a yes for me.

Mark, would you show this gentleman where all the cup-a-soups are, please?

If you follow Mark, he'll take you to 'em, chief.

In Burnley, Ian has had some inside information about the latest craze.

Basically my niece Lily,

she's five and all she keeps going on about is this Frozen film.

Apparently Disney are reckoning the merchandise is going to be

even more better than these loom bands that we thought was phenomenal.

They're looking at lunchboxes, drinks bottles, playing cards,

stationery items, bins...

You name it, they are literally going to market things

with these Frozen characters on.

I mean, obviously, if it's the next big thing,

it's going to be in short supply.

I don't think you'll ever beat the classic, The Jungle Book.

# Now I'm...

# ..the king of the jungle

# A jungle VIP! #

THEY CHUCKLE

Hey, King Louis, how do you start a fire, man?

It's fantastic, ain't it? I love that film.

Absolutely brilliant.

In HQ, head buyer Nicola is trying to stay on top

of the mass of Frozen orders

the shops are now expecting.

This e-mail you've sent me about freighting Frozen dresses,

it's a bit vague!

She's planning to trounce the competition

with the biggest pound range on the high street.

But all she's currently got is a handful of samples.

Right, OK.

(Jeez.)

I know, these few days all matter though at the moment, as you know.

'It's very pressured and I receive about...'

100 calls a day just about Frozen.

Ringing suppliers, "Where's my stock?

"When will I be getting this delivered?

"Can I have a photo for a flyer?

"Can I have... When will the...

"When will this container be being shipped?"

And every day matters.

It's getting to the stage where every hour matters now.

Yes, I'm looking forward to it.

'You can be fighting with lots of other people to get this stock,

'shipment dates get pushed back and delivery dates get pushed back.'

I can be sitting here tearing my hair out and I go home

and I'm close to tears sometimes.

Um, I know we keep missing each other...

Can you try and give me a call back, because I need to talk to you urgently about Frozen pyjamas.

In China, Chris is doing his bit

to speed up the multi-million-pound Frozen order.

This factory seems in the middle of nowhere.

He couldn't be downtown, the rents are too high.

The factory has to have a licence to produce Disney products.

It adds nearly a quarter onto the price Chris pays,

but this is one cost he doesn't want to cut.

Friend of mine, he imported Bob The Builder

and he didn't have the licences

and then the poor fellow ended up doing a bit of jail for it.

So I just wanted to make sure we're in the clear.

We're absolutely in the clear.

I ain't going to do a bit of porridge

for the fact we have got non-licensed products.

-No. Absolutely not.

-Right, that's made me feel a lot easier.

One of the 80 different Frozen products Poundworld has ordered

is a money tin and 143,000 of them

are being made in this factory.

What amazes me is how you've got the licensed products,

you've got the material, you've got the manufacture,

you've got the top on the bottom,

you've got the container, you've got the shipment...

You've got to get it there, we've got to put it on the shelf.

-And when it's all finished, we charge £1 for it.

-I know.

It's amazing.

Chris can only sell products like these for £1

because the cost of manufacturing in China is so cheap.

Workers here earn around £100 a week.

MACHINES WHIRR

Since Chris first came to China,

there have been improvements in working conditions.

Here, staff rotate on eight-hour shifts

to produce 200 million tins a year.

From that flat sheet, that's actually the finished item.

If they shipped it in a flat sheet, it would be a lot cheaper,

but we've got to ship fresh air.

Thanks to his visit, Chris's tins have moved up the queue,

but they'll take six weeks to ship,

so it's still hit and miss whether they'll arrive in the UK in time.

Not only have you got to order the right quantity,

you've got to hope that you actually get the stock in on time

or we've got a warehouse full of stuff we don't really want.

And we've got to reduce it, so that will take away the profit.

We don't make many mistakes, but the chance is always there.

Frozen is a million-plus bet

and you just hope you come through it the other side.

If you get enough wrong,

it can bring tears to your eyes, and tears to the cash flow,

but, I mean, you've got to do it. That's the game we're in.

While Chris waits for his huge order,

back on Britain's high streets,

everyone else is cashing in and selling out.

The reaction to Frozen's just been mental.

Archrival Poundland has managed to get a small range

weeks before any other pound shop.

It just goes like wildfire, it's mad.

If you don't get it there and then, it'll be gone in a few hours.

We've just come out of Poundland and we have managed to get some

Anna and Elsa sponges

and we've also bought some shimmery lip balms.

And we've got...oops...

some Frozen hand-wash

and shampoo and conditioner.

You want your children to get the first things what are out, don't you?

Obviously, the first one's to get them's obviously the best one.

Chris's range may be much bigger,

but now he's not first,

the risk of being frozen out is even higher.

Plan B would have to be to...

We will have to drill it another way.

In London, the Queen is finally getting her own designer pound shop,

even if it will only last for four days.

Don't worry about the tape now, let's get them all out first.

Is that too close between the blue and the purple?

Oh, you know, just some design...

issues going on in my head.

Sara and George have got just a few hours to stock the shelves

with thousands of handmade designer items.

They are safari place-name holders

for those fancy dinner parties that you have.

It's postcards, kind of, made as postcards...

It's just a really nice design.

And then you make...

Inside is this little winter wonderland.

You can grow cress in it.

You don't have so much grass in the snow, though...

so I'm a bit confused about that, but, you know.

The A5 clipboard is going to do really well.

They're such a bargain as well. I mean, that's £1.

Ding ding.

Sara and George aren't the only ones offering stylish design

at bargain prices.

There's been a mini invasion of discount design stores from Europe,

including Danish shop Tiger.

Always keen to stay ahead of his competitors,

Chris has bought some of their pound products

to see how they go down with Poundworld's biggest fan,

his 87-year-old mum, Alice.

What's this? It's a birthday card.

Right.

That's what we're doing, that's what they're doing.

No, you can't open them.

If you were in a shop, they wouldn't let you open it.

We'll open it and see what it says

and then see how it compares, quality-wise and size-wise

and everything.

Oh. I don't know what that means. I know what that means.

What does that mean?

-A bit of wood!

-SHE LAUGHS

Yeah, there's no picture on it at all, just a design.

If they're selling these for a pound, I can't get me head round it.

I understand it's a bit designer, but the bulk of our customers,

if they had a choice of buying that or this, they would choose ours.

I'm just looking at the batteries.

They've got two against our four-pack and they're doing them

-for a pound.

-It's only some... How can I say?

..maybe fashion-conscious person would buy them batteries.

Design sometimes does have relevance,

but it's got to be tied in to value for money.

And, y'know, when you just look for two batteries for a pound,

I would have thought the colour

wouldn't make a right lot of difference, cos it's just the value.

Just need nibbles for tonight. And me glasses.

Chris might have built his empire by shouting

value for money in a bright, clear, store...

Very good. Ooh...

..but Sara and George have crafted a totally different atmosphere.

-I really like the little porcelain pots.

-Mm.

We've been trying to think about what to do with a lot of our plants

at home, and some of these would be quite nice for the little herb

-things we have.

-Yeah.

£64, please.

Hundreds of customers have come to the opening

to get their hands on some designer bargains.

I have a pop-up sort of Christmas herb garden.

That's a pound!

A pound!

Dangerous, someone who spends all my money.

Although the Queen hasn't come along, people are still impressed.

It's beautifully presented. We've got wine.

It's nice to have things by designers and crafts makers

at affordable price points.

It's a bit posher than your average pound shop, isn't it?

I think a little bit.

It may be posh, but this pop-up has one thing in common with every

pound shop in the world.

You end up kind of being seduced by the cheap prices and end up

leaving with bags and bags and bags of things.

-£12.

-No way. You're going to spend more than that.

-No, I meant that's it.

-Really?

Oh, no. £18.

-I spent £39!

-She wasn't expecting that.

I thought, "I'm going to spend £1"!

-OK, £74, please.

-Ker-ching!

MUSIC: Rawhide by Frankie Laine

# Keep rollin', rollin', rollin' Though the streams are swollen

# Keep them dogies rollin' Rawhide!

# Through rain and wind and weather Hell-bent for leather... #

I've just got to go and let t'driver know to put it on this door here,

and we should get it off-loaded within t'next hour and 'alf.

Thank you. Do you just want to back it onto that door for us?

-Sure thing, mate.

-Thank you.

Nicola's sleepless nights

and Chris's personal visit to China have paid off.

Two months later, three containers have finally arrived,

including Chris's money boxes.

Probably get one of these for meself and put it under me

pillow out of t'way so t'wife can't see me stash.

From the warehouse near Wakefield, the entire range is sent to

shops across the UK, including a brand-new branch in Nottingham.

-Here they are.

-Where you found them?

-Wrong place.

-I was looking for them everywhere.

They've got a range of products that should satisfy even the most

ardent fans.

We've got the posters, we've got cups, we've got

the sticker books, we've got colouring pads, we've got

the large pencils with smaller pencils inside.

You name it, we've got it in Frozen.

Head buyer Nicola has come along to witness the launch in person.

Some of these products I haven't actually even seen in real

life as yet, so the first time I'm getting to see it is on the shelf.

Yeah, some of these things look fab.

So I really hope it's a success this morning and...

-SHE LAUGHS

-Oh, God!

With the help of the fairy-tale phenomenon,

the team hopes to attract record numbers of customers to the new shop.

I think actually I was expecting a rush of people going for Frozen

things, so I was like, "I've got to be in there!

"Somehow!"

Nicola and Chris have risked millions on their Frozen deal,

but it will all be for nothing if the hype has gone cold.

-CROWD CHANT:

-Five! Four! Three! Two! One!

Go.

Is somebody sharing my basket?

I've created a monster!

This is crazy, innit?

Oh, hectic! But I love this. It's for me granddaughters.

I've got everything!

This range is the culmination of eight months' hard graft for Nicola.

Yeah, waking up in the middle of the night having panic attacks

about Frozen. And, yeah...

I didn't imagine that at all! I find it quite... Yeah...

Sorry, I'm being stupid.

I heard it advertised on the radio, Frozen.

I thought, "I'll get some things for the grandchildren."

So there's me assortment of gifts for the grandchildren.

You can get a lot more for your money.

You can give your child a better range from what you can

get in the pound shop than if you paid in the proper shops, you know?

So it really does help, yeah.

It's the same all across the UK.

Word has got round that Chris's shops have an extensive

range of genuine merchandise, all for a pound.

It's selling so fast that with over a month left till Christmas,

the big worry now is keeping the shelves stocked.

There were plastic plates, plastic bowls, a plastic knife and fork set.

There was a lip gloss, there was a lip shimmer.

There was a money tin, a plastic sports bottle,

plastic drinks bottle, a Frozen bag, kitchen towel, Frozen tissue cube.

And that is all we have got left now.

It's just absolutely hammered. I've never known anything like it.

I had a woman this morning who rang up at quarter past eight

and she was asking for Frozen wrapping paper.

Gone. I haven't got the Frozen gift bags. They've gone.

I haven't got the Frozen cutlery. No plastic bowls, no plastic plates.

That is all we've got left.

This potato peeler -

you could put a Frozen emblem on there

and that would fly off the shelves.

Stuff like this gets filled once a week. But this...

two or three times a day. Morning, sweetheart. Can I help you?

-I don't want to interfere with you.

-All right, sweetheart, OK.

All right, then. Thank you.

Two months after the launch,

they've sold three million of the branded items.

-I want something like that. Does that sell?

-Yeah.

Well, that came in on Monday

and we've sold 10,000 units already, which is five days' sales.

-Unbelievable.

-It's unbelievable.

And with Frozen 2 in the pipeline,

Chris's million-pound gamble looks like a safe bet.

I've never watched the Frozen movie,

but if it means this much to us, I'm going to watch it as soon as I can!

-Next time...

-I'm staying calm.

..Chris picks up the pieces after an online disaster...

You can't make the same mistake twice in business.

-You move that.

-Oh, that's good!

..and in store, they've got a crime fight on their hands.

Holy smoke! Shoplifter! Quick, to the Batmobile!

-Come on, let's get him!

-You're crackers!