Gift shop Highworth Emporium in Highworth is gearing up to take part in BBC Radio Wiltshire’s fun ‘Beat the Boss’ competition, a week long event that starts today, Monday October 25 and ends on Thursday (October 28), with the shop receiving a high local profile by being featured on the radio every day.
“Each week, BBC Radio Wiltshire does a quiz on the radio featuring a local business to find out who is the smarter, the boss or their staff,” explains Highworth Emporium’s co-owner Aga Marsden. “The radio station sets three random general knowledge quiz questions each day – three for the boss and three for a member of staff – calling the boss and the staff member they’re playing against on their separate phone numbers at 12.30pm. The boss plays against a different member of staff.”
Continues Aga: “A running total is kept throughout the week with the last day being ‘double points Thursday’, so there’s a chance for a catch up if one side is lagging behind! The winning team gets a BBC Radio Wiltshire mug, and each side sets a silly forfeit for the other that can be done at some point in the future and doesn’t need to be on the radio!”
Aga highlights that forfeits have included people cleaning each other’s cars, dressing up in Telly Tubby outfits, baking cakes, singing songs and dancing in the street!
Should the Highworth staff lose, Aga says the forfeit is that the staff have to come to work dressed as Christmas elves on she shop’s Christmas evening on November 4. Meanwhile, the staff’s forfeit for boss Aga is that she has to make and record herself making a Smartie sweet cake, and saying something along the lines of, “I am making a Smartie cake for my lovely, amazing and wise staff because they are smarter than me!” and post it on Highworth Emporium Facebook.
Aga is already a radio ‘star’ on Radio Wiltshire, having been interviewed last Friday (October 22) to introduce Highworth Emporium to listeners as the company playing ‘Beat The Boss’ this week. She introduced her team and was invited to talk about the business and how she’s feeling about the competition. “We are really looking forward to it, sounds like so much fun!” Aga enthused.
For Aga, it was the second Radio Wiltshire interview of the week. Last Wednesday (October 20), she was interviewed about her success at The Greats in September, where the shop won the Independent Gift Retailer of the Year – South West category. “To celebrate, we had a lovely meal out with our girls on Tuesday (October 19), and were delighted to finally use our Visa singing advert competition prize from two years ago, which was £150 on a Visa debit card,” Aga told GiftsandHome.net.
In fact, it’s been quite a year for Aga, who married her long term partner Richard Marsden during the summer.
Top: Highworth Emporium’s ‘Boss’, Aga Marsden, left, is shown with shop manger Vicky Packford.
