The High Life (The Mercury Travel Club #3)

Chapter Four Mercury Blues

Lorenzo is midway through a handshake with me when he makes this announcement. I swear as my hand goes limp, that he tightens his grip as if he’s performing some mind-reading act.

‘This place is nice. I love what you’ve done with it.’ It’s as if he hasn’t just told us we’re fair game in his mind. ‘You’ve really ignited independent travel around here.’

‘Thank you, we’re doing really well,’ I croak, trying to sound elder-stateswoman-ish and failing completely. I can see that the others are still dumbstruck. For some reason I need to assure him of our success. It’s as if he’s the school examiner and we’re getting a performance report. I look him up and down. He’s one of those men with an impossibly slim body. From his chest to his pointed shoes it’s just one straight line of black jeans and black shirt, only interrupted by a slim snakeskin belt.

‘We may even be doing too well.’ Charlie laughs. ‘We didn’t plan to attract any competition.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Lorenzo says, nodding at our racks of brochures. ‘From the look of things we’re going for rather different target markets, and anyway, I firmly believe there’s plenty of business for both of us otherwise I wouldn’t be here.’

‘So when do you think you’ll be opening?’ I’m trying to work out whether he’s mocking our shop or being genuine.

‘I’d hoped it would be this weekend, but the builders tell me what I want is impossible in that timeframe. So it’s looking like the end of the month if you can believe that. Still, you have to trust the experts, don’t you? I’ll pop in with an invite to the opening when I know.’

With that he leaves. Charlie’s smile is far too broad to be convincing as we watch Lorenzo slither off the premises. As soon as he’s out of sight, Josie declares that she needs to go and wash her hands. I join her. Charlie huddles us all together when we get back.

‘What do we think?’ he asks.

‘He seemed quite harmless,’ I offer half truthfully and half hopefully. It’s beyond any level of comprehension that I can muster up that he’d actually try to compete with my magnificent Mercury.

‘Bollocks,’ says Josie, having no problem expressing her views. ‘“Going after different target markets” — garbage. I know his type and he’ll be out to get us all right. So if that’s what we’re up against, we have to make damn sure he doesn’t nab any of our customers.’

Charlie nods. ‘I hate to say it but I think Josie’s right. We have to make sure our customers never want to travel with anyone else, starting with these hotel offers.’

I think they’re overreacting but I’m now fired up by the thought of working with the other two musketeers to defeat the new upstart. We’re on fire, certain to emerge the unequivocal champions of travel — we email the hotel offers that Charlie has just secured to customers we know can take advantage of last-minute breaks, and we post everything on our social media channels. The office is buzzing and, as expected, within the hour our phones start ringing. Yep — we certainly know our customers.

I answer mine cheerfully. ‘Hello, there — Mercury Travel, where can we take you?’

Josie always cringes at this cheesy line, which is probably why I still use it. I look over at her as I’m saying it but she’s deeply engrossed in her own call.

‘I was just wondering if there’s any chance of cancelling my booking,’ says the person on the end of my phone. ‘Or if not, could you match this offer?’

The caller tells me that immediately after our email he received another with a voucher. Lorenzo’s new travel agency is offering new customers ￡100 off any booking in their launch week. And by the way, that’s what they’re going to be called: Launch. Funny, he didn’t mention these vouchers as he was standing in our shop.

My inbox starts filling up with similar requests. It seems that the whole town has received these vouchers and, because of them, all the good work of this morning looks set to unravel. Josie has her hand over the receiver and I can see from her expression she needs me to make a decision.

I respond to my caller loudly enough for her to hear and copy: ‘We really want you to stay with Mercury, so we’d be happy to match that very short-term offer. And we’re sure you’ll have a fabulous time.’

I’m not sure that giving so much money off is the best thing to do but it feels as if my beloved Mercury is undergoing a surprise attack and I have to do something. Just then, a customer comes in with a printout of one of the vouchers.

‘I got this, this afternoon,’ he tells us.

We smile at the customer and tell them that there’s no problem, we’ll match any offer. We manage to save his booking.

‘It’ll just be a temporary promotion,’ I say to the others when the customer has left. ‘He thought his shop would be open by now so he bought an email list and sent out an offer. All the supermarkets give you vouchers when a new competitor opens up but they only last a few days then it settles down. He’ll probably feel really stupid having sent them out when he wasn’t even open.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ Charlie says.

So do I. I always go and try the new store when it opens but then go back to what I know, so perhaps that’s what will happen here.

‘I feel quite sorry for him in a way,’ I continue, trying to lift the mood to where it’d been before this news. ‘He obviously doesn’t really know what he’s doing — sending out offers before he’s even open, underestimating the building work. Let’s just get on with the job — what do we need to sell next?’

Josie nods and puts her determined face on. ‘Niagara Falls still has loads of capacity,’ she tells me, ‘but on such a rainy day, I’m not sure I’d want to book a holiday near a raging flood.’

‘Have we committed volume on it?’ asks Charlie, and Josie nods that we have. We all know there is a chance we’ll lose money on this if we don’t sell the spaces.

‘Right then, team,’ I say, ‘let’s show this guy what we can do and if anyone asks about that discount then we honour it — OK?’

Charlie nods. ‘Great — so what angle shall we take?’

‘Have we said things like “majestic”, “wonder of the world”, “bucket-list destination”?’ I ask. Charlie and Josie both nod as they’ve done all of that. We pull up the website for some inspiration.

‘This looks terrifying,’ says Charlie pointing to a jet boat that seems to be heading straight into the rush of the falls while a zip-wire soars over the top.

‘You could do a helicopter ride too. Although that looks as if it gets a bit close to the cliff edge for me,’ I add. ‘In James Bond films, the baddies would probably catch the blade just slightly against the falls and the chopper would go plummeting into the water.’

‘So the marketing campaign reads, “Come see Niagara then die a horrible death”?’ Josie asks. ‘You two are a real inspiration.’

‘You do better then,’ we tell her, and a contemplative silence falls over the shop.

‘Boo!’

We don’t need to turn around as we all know who’ll be standing in the doorway.

‘I thought you should know about these,’ says Patty handing us a Launch voucher. ‘But from the look of you all, I’m guessing you already know.’

I’m not sure a visit from Patty is quite what we need right now but she’s here and she offers to help.

‘We’re stuck,’ Josie tells her. ‘We’re trying to find a new way to sell Niagara Falls.’

Patty looks through all the pictures. They’re full of couples embracing against the spectacular backdrop. She picks up some of the pictures and starts creating a collage of daredevil stunts alongside romantic couples.

‘How about this,’ she says: ‘Film poster-style advert using the man in the tuxedo like James Bond, and the helicopter over the falls. You use the headline: “View To a Thrill starring you”.’

‘I like it,’ says Josie. ‘We focus on the extreme activities you can do but also there’s a casino we can take customers to as part of the trip so if zip-wires and speedboats aren’t your thing, you can go for the whole glamour experience. You’re not just a pretty face, are you?’

‘Obviously,’ Patty graciously replies.

With the campaign theme agreed, we work until the early hours of the evening getting our marketing message out to customers. Patty keeps us supplied with coffee until we’ve done all we can and then as our spirit is starting to fade with exhaustion, we agree to lock up the shop and be in early tomorrow to continue the good fight.

I take a slow walk home, letting the stresses of the day dissolve into the cool evening air. The rain has stopped, leaving a pale blue sky and a dying orange streak where the sun is setting. The town looks washed clean as the street lights start to flicker on and reflect in puddles below. After the ups and downs of the day, I need some fresh air and I’m in no rush, so I take my time.

The day had started so well. Josie knew me well enough to be in the shop early on a rainy day and we’d had fabulous banter with the customers. Michael was lovely and thoughtful even if he did have to be chivvied out of the shop, but then Lorenzo and his vouchers took us by surprise. Charlie and I dealt with it. We didn’t argue or panic, we just got on with the job. Then Patty came up trumps, too. I have some good people in my life but there may be a snake in the grass now. I wonder how long it’ll take before Launch opens. He said a few weeks but he might be lying. Zoe knows about refits but I can hardly just pop round and ask her advice. I usually Skype her on a Sunday night but my mum joins in those sessions and I don’t want her putting her penny’s worth in. I’ll make an extra call to Zoe tonight and ask her.

By the time I get home, have a bath to unwind, and microwave some supper, it’s quite late. I decide to wait until midnight so as not to disturb Zoe at work and so she’ll have time to get home. I’m trying to be considerate but she’s worked out the time here and this unscheduled call from me has her worrying.

‘Mum — it must be after twelve there. Nothing’s happened has it? Is Gran OK?’

‘She’s still in the peak of health,’ I reassure her, ‘which when you consider the amount of cakes and biscuits she eats is quite surprising.’

For a brief second I picture Mum donating her body to medical science when she’s gone. They’re trying to understand how she lived to be one hundred and fifty on a diet of pure sugar. Of course, Mum being Mum, she’s still awake on the operating table and telling them to be careful with their scalpel things.

‘Mum — are you still there?’ Zoe is sounding panicked again.

I shake myself back to reality and tell her about the new travel agents. I ask whether it would genuinely take as long as a month to finish refitting a shop.

‘It depends on what they’re doing in there,’ she says. ‘For a simple layout, I wouldn’t have thought it’d take that long. Maybe he’s had to apply for a change-of-use permit. What was it before?’

I tell her it was a florist.

‘Then I really don’t know, maybe they’ve found damp or something. You’re not worried are you? You don’t really have any competition at the moment and I know how much you love Mercury.’

I reassure her that I’m not worried, not at all. Although having Zoe ask whether I am has the doubts I’ve been trying to suppress resurfacing. We say our goodnights and I go to bed but can’t relax. I prop up my pillow and open up a search engine. I type in How to deal with a competitor, and having scrolled through the words of several business gurus I’ve never heard of, I’m delighted to see that my all-time hero, Mr Richard Branson, has advice for me in an online business magazine. Eagerly I open the page and his words fly off the screen, striking a real chord.

It’s all about needing to welcome your competition with open arms — not letting them walk all over you. Striking the right balance between respecting your rivals and focusing on how you can beat them. You must remain focused on your own team, and on your own products and services.

Focus and respect. Yes — I can do that.

He says you must show ambition, put some effort into creativity and focus on developing the next big thing so your company will emerge as the one that others want to copy.

‘Focus, respect and the next big thing,’ I murmur.

Yes, Richard, that makes complete sense. That’s what I’ll do: be respectful but focus on our strengths then develop the next big thing. I knew he’d have the answer.

I switch off the tablet and lie down to sleep, repeating my mantra as I drift off.

Focus, Respect and the Next Big Thing.