Marco owns a restaurant specialising in seafood meals in a well-known seaside holiday town.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2015). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] Any one advantage × 1 mark such as
2. can become skilled at serving better quality seafood meals
3. may be able to serve these meals more cheaply
4. may become well known for his seafood meals
5. customers like to eat seafood, when at the seaside seafood is easy to obtain
6. Any other relevant point.
7. [3] Award 3 marks for three points of reasoning – Yes = no marks
8. Marco is operating a retail outlet/operating a restaurant
9. he is selling his seafood to customers
10. he is buying ingredients/equipment from suppliers
11. his aim is to make a profit
12. so he is engaged in trade which is part of commerce
13. he may make use of aids to trade (or example) 1 mark
14. Any other relevant point.
15. [4] Any four points × 1 mark each or two well explained points × 2 marks
16. to provide information about the restaurant (1) such as its location/menus (1)
17. to enable people to book reservations online (1)
18. to advertise the restaurant (1)
19. has potentially large international audience (1)
20. to show customers special promotions (1)
21. to save money on other more expensive advertising media (1)
22. to provide contact details such as address (1)
23. to compete with other restaurant businesses (1)
24. more customers are online therefore increase in sales (1)
25. Any other relevant information.
26. [4] Any two types of consumer protection × 1 mark and 1 mark each for the explanation
27. safe and clean premises – subject to regular inspections
28. food should be fit for purpose (1) and not harm you (1) – sale of goods acts
29. food standards should be followed – subject to food and drugs acts
30. customers should receive the correct weight of any produce - weights and measures
31. food should be adequately described – trades description acts
32. electrical equipment should be safe – subject to testing
33. advertising should not be misleading – special offers should be valid
34. Any other relevant type of consumer protection.
35. [2] Any one reason explained × 2 marks
36. the bills are likely to be large (1) and so some diners will not wish to carry cash (1)
37. he wishes to attract customers (1) who wish to postpone payment (1)
38. his competitors accept credit cards (1) so he must do the same to keep customers (1)
39. may not wish to keep large amounts of cash on the premises (1) for security reasons (1)
40. Any other relevant point.
41. [6] Level 2 (4–6 marks) Has discussed several ways of maintaining his profits with reasoning.
42. Marco may undertake several measures to maintain profits. He will keep a careful watch on his expenses so that they do not increase too much. He will introduce new menus in his restaurant from time to time to maintain customer loyalty and to attract new customers. He will undertake advertising in the locality and also keep his website up to date so that people will be constantly reminded of his restaurant. He may introduce special events such as themed nights to attract different target markets. He may introduce a loyalty scheme so that people gain advantages such as free meals for eating regularly at the restaurant. He may introduce pricing strategies – different prices for different parts of the day or days of the week. This may be complicated to operate and may not work too well if there are a number of staff trying to administer it. He might also consider expanding and opening a second outlet but he would need to do careful research before undertaking this.
43. Overall he should keep a watchful eye on his sales revenue, his costs of supplies and his total expenses so that he maintains his level of net profit.
44. NB. 4 marks maximum if only one way is discussed.
45. Level 1 (1-3 marks) Has commented or listed several ways of maintaining profits.
46. Marco may undertake several measures to maintain profits. He will introduce new menus in his restaurant. He will undertake advertising locally. He will keep his website up to date. He may introduce special events. He needs to watch his total sales and his expenses.