The creepiest doll shop in the North West of England, Mary Shortle, has been exposed for yet another abuse of the law, her customers and data protection.
WB have previously reported on Mary Shortle on two previous occasions for huge data breaches when they have made false accusations across social media by releasing CCTV images of customers. WB understands they are currently under investigation from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for these matters.
Mary Shortle’s Shop For Dysfunctional Dollies’ manager, Victoria Shortle – daughter of owner Mary – posted on her Facebook page that a member of staff would no longer be working with them. This sparked a war of words by the staff member concerned and her close friend against Shortle, accusing her of unfair dismissal based on disability discrimination against her child. It is alleged that Victoria Shortle stated to the staff member, before she was fired, “My mum (Mary Shortle) doesn’t work to feed your child” and “I don’t employ people who claim off benefits”, as well as accusing her of “screwing over the TV licensing”.
The irony of these accusations is not lost as it emerges Mary Shortle’s have been a little slow to pass on PAYE tax to the Inland Revenue. So slow, in fact, that they have failed to do so. In other words, they are deducting tax from employees but not paying that to the IR. Additionally, reports of employees not receiving payslips at all, so no idea what they are earning or deductions, as well as being paid cash-in-hand, which is a fairly outdated practice for the most part in business.
We have also learned that Mary Shortle’s have a tendency to pay all their business expenses in cash, which is an alarming trait for any organisation as it leaves no paper trail. They are then free to be ‘creative’ with their accounting. Regular trips to Europe in their van with large wads of cash, they return with stock for their shop in Queen’s Arcade, Leeds.
Mary Shortle is marketed as a boutique up-market, high-end, doll shop. However, their business and stock seems to be far from high-end. The dolls stocked within the shop appear to be replicated over and over and over. In other words, the exact same doll, simply dressed in different clothes and marketed as different characters. Whilst this may be standard practice, the vast contrasting pricing is not. Comparing two identical dolls, we can see one is priced at £99 and the other at £199. A slight difference in price would be normal, to allow for clothing costs, but this is an extortionate price difference.
Another product stocked within store is the baby nappies. Purchased direct from Aldi at a cost of 98p for twent-eight (just 3.2p each), Shortle simply repackages and rebrands and sells two for £1. That’s a mammoth 1572% markup.
Another very dubious business practice is buying baby vests from Asda, packs of 10 for £10. Cutting the ‘George’ label off the vests, they rebrand as their own.
The most controversial thing Mary Shortle has done recently is the announcement of teaming up with notorious YouTubers The Ingham Family to create a ‘Jace’ Reborn doll, sculpted after the family’s own newborn baby. Owners of the £300 doll will have the prize of meeting The Ingham Family for tea and cakes at a party next month. Victoria Shortle, chief organiser of the event, was responsible for arranging the guests into groups which would determine what time slot each guest received. Our source suggests these guests were arranged based on a ‘freakiness scale’. The freakier you are, the later time slot you got. Freaky meaning disabled, strange, etc. The earlier your time slot, this meant you were probably rich, white and a family.
Whether this comes to fruition, time will tell.
