This includes administration, defence, health, education and personal services such as hairdressers.
- Financial and business services
This section includes banks, insurance companies, advertising, law, accountancy and so on.
- Transport and communication
Transport and communication section includes haulage companies, bus and train service providers, radio services, telecommunications and television companies.
- Retailing, distribution, hotels and catering
This part of the tertiary sector includes shops, distributive services, inns & pubs, fast food outlets and many others.
As Balti Raj is involved in providing fast food services it lies in the Retailing section of the Tertiary sector. It might also fall partly in the secondary sector as it uses raw materials or vegetables and other things from primary sector to make food and serve them to their customers. Waitrose is also in the Retailing section of the tertiary sector as it is involved in selling food, household items and all these sorts of things.
Description of the main activities, how they are carried out
Each and every business has one or more business activity. The core business activity is the most important activity for the business, which usually generates the largest amount of income. The core business activity of Balti Raj is to make food for its customers and deliver the food to their houses. The owner of Balti Raj, Afzal has to make sure that the food cooked for his customers are fully hygienic, cooked on the desires of his customers and delivered to them on time. Because, if he doesn’t meet the expectations of his customers, then he is at a great risk of losing his customers.
Waitrose on the other hand, has a core business activity of selling food and household items. That’s the main purpose of Waitrose as a supermarket. But, besides selling food and household items it also sells flowers, newspapers & magazines, cigarettes/tobacco products, alcohol and so many other things. It also operates as a bank. Any Waitrose customer can open a Waitrose bank account and pay in or withdraw money when he/she visits any branch of Waitrose. Basically, the main aim is to provide ‘one stop shopping’ where the customer can get everything he/she needs under one roof. But the main activity still is food and household items. This is because changes in demand for the other items such as newspapers & magazines, tobacco products, alcohol and things like that will affect the overall sales figures. If the demand for the core activity falls then Waitrose is in serious trouble.
Trends for that activity in the UK
The range of restaurants available in the UK has increased greatly in recent years yet, as anyone who has dined abroad will guarantee, eating out in Britain can be an expensive business. London restaurants, for example, are more expensive than their counterparts in Paris or New York.
One of the problems with London is that it's almost impossible to eat well and cheaply. The lower end of the market is dominated by "chains" which offer mass-produced food poorly disguised as "home-made" with what they believe to be clever marketing and presentation. There are insufficient small family-run concerns, with the exception of the ethnic restaurants that have increased down the years.
There's no doubt that London and many other areas in the UK have seen an explosion in new restaurants and all of this needs massive financing to cover the UK's high property related costs. It is also a fact that most UK businesses still fear the boom/bust economic cycle will continue. These are good times for UK restaurants, and money must be made short term before the emergence of any economic downturns, and in order to meet investors expectations.
More and more people are tired of processed foods and want more fresh, natural fare incorporated into their diets. And they're prepared to pay. An exclusive survey conducted for The Grocer magazine revealed that more than half of British consumers are concerned at the number of ingredients in processed foods. Some 64% of British consumers look for convenience foods that are "fresh" and "unprocessed"--which appears to contradict present beliefs that "convenience is king". The survey found that in addition, over a quarter of Britons (27%) look to see if a convenience food product is preservative, coloring or additive-free when consulting the label.
Furthermore, 30% check the labels to assess the calorie content of convenience foods, while more than 20% look at the labels to see the number of additives. Older people are more likely to look for convenience foods that are "fresh" and "unprocessed".
These findings support research by the FSA (Food Standards Agency), which monitors public sentiment on food and drink issues. The Agency found that consumers want more information about what's in foods. Consumer concerns are also becoming more sophisticated and identify a new determination to make diet choices that fit in with long-term health.
Conventional wisdom saw time-pressed and cash-rich consumers focused almost exclusively on the concept of "convenience". However, the healthfulness of food is now clearly playing a bigger role in choice, and increasingly, convenience will also have to be synonymous with "good for me".
Consistent with the above, consumers no longer see meals in simply a "solutions" context. A meal or snack on the move or around the kitchen table is increasingly about food and nutrition. With or without hectic schedules, failure to get the right sort of ingredients makes us sick. This is a growing trend and the food industry will need to recognise and respond to it.
The result of this research and that by the FSA demonstrates how much more information today's consumers want about what's in the food they eat. They want full ingredient listings and they want to know how the food has been produced. In addition, they are increasingly concerned about animal welfare and food allergies as they relate to what they are eating.
Waitrose started selling many items other than food and household items. Its activities are hence changing as it tries to identify what customers now want and need that it can supply. All business activities are likely to change and are affected by various factors such as new legislation and standards introduced by the government, levels of spending by household and businesses, social trends – which affect how people spend their money and time, competitors entering or leaving the market, and so on. There are so many other factors which all have a different effect depending upon the exact business activity in which the firm is involved, its location, type of customers and employees, size, and so on.
For UK retailers, value growth is expected to remain slow, with continuing pressure on prices and fierce competition leading to retailers trying to position in the market place through differentiation.
Explanation of the location of each business
Every business locates where it thinks the business will be successful. A business may need:
- Staff to work there
- Raw materials to produce furnished products
- Customers
- Keep their costs as low as possible
Balti Raj has located itself in Station Road, which is in New Barnet located nearby the New Barnet train station. The reason why Balti Raj has been set up there is due to the train station, office areas and also thickly populated residential areas. The opening hours for Balti Raj are 5:00pm to 12:00am. Most of official workers finish their work at 5:00pm and use public transport such as train, bus, tube, etc. to travel to work and return home. So as people return from their work at five through New Barnet station, they pop into Balti Raj to have some food or buy food for dinner. There are also huge residential areas nearby Balti Raj, so people from these residential areas constantly order food for dinner, parties and so on. It is therefore a very good for Balti Raj as there are customers constantly from five till midnight. The premises cost and rent are also cheap in that particular area which includes a huge parking facility, which can be used by customers to park their cars.
Waitrose has stores located throughout the Midlands and the south of England – from Nottinghamshire to Cornwall. It has got over 135 stores located throughout the England. The main branch of Waitrose is located at Doncastle Road in Bracknell. One of its branches is situated in Holloway Road in Nags Head. The Holloway branch has got a huge parking facility for its customers, which could provide about 300 customers to park their cars in that parking area. The Holloway branch has been located there by its owners, John Lewis Partnership where John Lewis Partnership Department store used to be before. One reason for locating Waitrose there could be because of the busy shopping area obtained by Argos, James Selby, Marks & Spencers, Safeway and many others. It could also be due to the customer demands in that area for Waitrose. Despite Safeway and M&S being there Waitrose still makes good profit out of its Holloway store, as the quality of the products and service are higher than that of Safeway and Marks & Spencers.
Stakeholders of the businesses
Every business has stakeholders. The college I study in has stakeholders, so I am a stakeholder in my college. The teachers and the security guards are also stakeholders in the college.
The stakeholders of Balti Raj are the customers who order food from it, the employees work for it and so on. Similarly Waitrose has stakeholders such as the John Lewis Partnership who owns the business, its customers, employees, the local community and so on. As an owner of Balti Raj, Afzal would like to see his business making higher profits and expanding from time to time. Similarly John Lewis Partnership would like to see that from Waitrose. Customers have interests in these businesses as well. As a customer a person would expect highly hygienic and tasty food from Balti Raj, which would meet his/her expectations, and high quality products, and services from Waitrose.
Both Balti Raj’s and Waitrose’s customers are important to each of them. As I’ve said before in my ‘Customer Service’ assignment that customers are fragile. Once you dissatisfy them, it is very hard to get them back and it is most likely that they never come back, especially in small businesses such as Balti Raj. So in most cases customers want reasonable prices, performance, quality and convenience.
The influence of customers depends on the type and size of the business, and how receptive is it to the views of customers. If a customer of Waitrose stops shopping from Waitrose and goes to Safeway to do his/her shopping, then Waitrose is unlikely to notice. This is because it operates on such a large scale it only knows if something is wrong if many customers stop shopping and sales fall. On the other hand, if a person is a regular customer in Balti Raj and suddenly stops going and ordering food from there, Afzal is likely to wonder why and may ask the customer if he/she suddenly calls in again, or even meets him/her somewhere.
Staff working in both Balti Raj and Waitrose have many expectations from their employers. The main areas of interest for employees in both businesses would be:
- The way the staff are treated
- The rates of pay
- Time off for emergencies
- Sick pay when he/she is ill
- To comply with the health & safety regulations.
Expectations of employees may vary from one business to another. For example, the expectations of employees in Balti Raj may not be as high as that of Waitrose, because Balti Raj is a very small business compared to Waitrose. As a sole trader and a small business Balti Raj might not be able to provide some facilities such as time off for emergencies, sick pay and so on, because if an employee takes an emergency leave it would be very hard to coupe without him and there would not be anyone to replace his position to do his specified job. But in case of Waitrose all the expectations are possible as it is a huge firm which has got over 135 branches so if an employee takes an emergency leave, Waitrose would have plenty of more employees to replace that person.
The government has a very positive interest in all businesses. Businesses create employment opportunities. They pay tax to the local council. People who are employed pay tax and don’t claim benefits, which means the government gains revenue. The government is also aware that without any regulation some undesirable business activities may take place such as:
- Consumer rights may be ignored
- Dangerous products may be sold
- People would be cheated on price
- Some executives may defraud the company
- Employees may be treated unfairly
The government therefore has a significant influence on businesses, as it can make an activity illegal and therefore controls business operations effectively. The government not only tries to control business activities, but they also want to encourage businesses. To do this they introduce protective and supportive measures, such as to protecting smaller businesses by making it illegal for large businesses to collude and fix prices. Health & Safety legislation protects employees and also gives employers legal protection against dangerous and unsafe actions by workers.
In conclusion, both Balti Raj and Waitrose are doing their best to provide their customers with the best possible service in a very satisfactory manner, which would lead to increasing profits for both the organisations.
By Sultan Ahmed