Walmart, the US multinational retailer, is the world's largest company. It allows its customers to pay for their purchases by cash and by using a variety of other forms of money. The company is the third largest employer in the world. Most of its workers do not belong to a trade union.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2014). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [4] 1 mark for each of two influences identified, e.g.:
2. income
3. confidence
4. wealth
5. interest rate
6. accept influences on the amount people spend on a particular product, e.g. price, age, tastes, taxes, etc.
7. 1 mark for each of two explanations, e.g.:
8. people with higher income have a greater ability to spend
9. people are likely to spend more if they are confident about the future
10. an increase in the value of people's wealth increases the ability to spend
11. a rise in the rate of interest is likely to reduce spending as borrowing will be more expensive and borrowing will be cheaper.
12. an explanation of how a change in the price of a good or related good, age, tastes or taxes will affect spending on a good
13. [4] Up to 2 marks: to act as a medium of exchange or carry out any other functions of money (1), people have to be willing to accept the item as payment (1).
14. Up to 2 marks: to be able to make payments of differing amounts and to be able to give change (1), it must be possible for this to be divided into different values (1).
15. [4] 1 mark for each of two advantages identified:
16. better staff facilities/working conditions
17. greater chance of promotion
18. higher wages
19. better training
20. job security
21. opportunity to join a union
22. opportunity to work abroad
23. greater status
24. 1 mark for each of two explanations:
25. a larger company may be able to afford, e.g. staff canteen
26. a larger company will have layers of staff/management
27. if a company is more profitable, may be able to pay higher wages
28. a bigger company can afford to offer training to its staff
29. bigger companies are normally more financially stable and therefore offer more job security
30. larger companies are more likely to allow unionisation
31. a larger company is more likely to be a multinational
32. other people are more likely to have heard of the name of a larger company
33. [8] Up to 6 marks for possible benefits:
34. Up to 2 marks: may encourage more workers to apply for jobs (1), as they may expect better working conditions/job security (1).
35. Up to 2 marks: reduces costs of negotiating with workers (1) as negotiations can take place with one organisation rather than possibly many individual workers (1).
36. Up to 2 marks: provides a channel of communication (1), so information on, e.g. new working practices can be spread more quickly (1).
37. Up to 3 marks: may promote training (1), increasing labour productivity (1) and so lower costs of production (1).
38. Up to 2 marks: may reduce conflict (1) as workers' discontents can be taken to management and possibly resolved (1).
39. Up to 6 marks for why it may not benefit:
40. Up to 4 marks: may push up wages (1), as the union can use its power to bid up wage rates for its members (1). This will increase the firm's costs of production (1) and reduce the firm's competitiveness.
41. Up to 3 marks: may reduce flexibility (1) as a union may insist that its members only undertake the tasks in their job descriptions (1) and are not to work outside the standard hours (1).
42. Up to 3 marks: may take industrial action (1), e.g. a strike will disrupt production (1) and lose customers/reduce revenue/profits (1).
43. Maximum of 4 marks for a list or list-like response.
44. Note: a maximum of 8 marks overall.