A department store has determined that its customers redeem

Question

A department store has determined that its customers redeem only a small percentage of the paper coupons it mails out every month. In an effort to reduce the amount of paper waste, the store plans to stop mailing coupons. Instead, the store will encourage customers to visit its website and use the coupons available online.

Which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the likelihood that the department store's plan will serve its purpose?

A. How many customers will stop shopping at the department store due to the elimination of paper coupons

B. Whether the department store will continue to accept paper coupons from its competitors

C. Whether customers who currently use paper coupons will print out the online coupons before redeeming them

D. How often the department store will mail flyers to customers to inform them of the availability of online coupons

E. Whether customers will be able to make their purchases online instead of by visiting the store

Soumya200011 · Answer

See, if the point is about reducing the money spent on the mailings...then we should look for alternatives, and take into consideration the frequency of mailings. But here, the issue is to reduce the amount of paper used.How can it be option D. IMO C.
Can anyone clarify?

righthand · Answer

OE : Identify the question type

This question asks for information that would help determine the likelihood of a plan's success, so it's an Evaluation question.

Untangle the stimulus

After learning that a lot of its coupons go unused, a department store has decided to stop mailing paper coupons and, instead, offer online coupons. The goal of this plan is to reduce the amount of paper that goes to waste.

Predict the answer

While the plan will definitely reduce the amount of paper used to mail coupons, it's possible that this plan will bring about at least as much paper waste for some other reason. To determine whether this plan will be successful, it's important to know whether paper will be used for other purposes that are just as wasteful.

Evaluate the choices

(A) is irrelevant. The store's plan is to reduce paper usage. While the store may find this information useful from a business perspective, it has no bearing on whether or not the plan will achieve the stated purpose.

(B) is irrelevant. Even if other stores continue to produce paper coupons and the department store continues to accept them, the department store would still be able to reduce its own paper usage by eliminating its paper coupons.

(C) is irrelevant. The wasted paper doesn't come from people who do use the coupons. It's the unused coupons that constitute waste. So, the same amount of paper might be used for coupons that are used, but the plan would still reduce waste as the store would no longer be printing out a large number of coupons that go unused.

(D) is correct . If the store replaces the coupons with monthly mailings that read "coupons available online," then it might be sending out just as much paper that goes straight into the recycling bin. On the other hand, if the store only needs to send out such mailings once or twice a year, or it decides to rely on its social media presence to get the word out, then this approach would indeed cut back on paper and the plan would work.

(E) is irrelevant. It doesn't matter where people purchase their goods. The goal of the plan is solely to reduce the waste of paper.

TAKEAWAY: When a plan intends to reduce some effect, it doesn't have to eliminate that effect to succeed. As long as the plan has some measure of success, then it can be said to have fulfilled its goal.

Soumya200011 · Answer

Got it now.. Did not completely understand option D Thanks!

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

The main intention behind the store plans to stop mailing coupons is to reduce the amount of paper waste.

The option evaluating that the store will be able to reduce the paper wastage must mention the paper usage frequency in it.

A. How many customers will stop shopping at the department store due to the elimination of paper coupons (The frequency of paper usage is crucial to evaluate the passage, customers are not the evaluating factor here) (incorrect)

B. Whether the department store will continue to accept paper coupons from its competitors (if deapartment store is going to accept paper coupon in future as well, how they are going to accomplish their main purpose of reducing paper wastage! When they are planning to stop mailing paper coupon) (irrelevant)

C. Whether customers who currently use paper coupons will print out the online coupons before redeeming them(Online coupons are meant to redeem online, how printing them will help customers in redeeming prize) (Incorrect)

D. How often the department store will mail flyers to customers to inform them of the availability of online coupons(If the customers have to spend on flyer paper how will they reduce the paper wastage, the frequency of paper usage will help in evaluating the statement) (incorrect)

E. Whether customers will be able to make their purchases online instead of by visiting the store(Paper is not the intended focal here, which is of no use) (Irrelevant)

answer is D

Posted from my mobile device

Nipungupta9081 · Answer

IMO D

A. How many customers will stop shopping at the department store due to the elimination of paper coupons - doing the opposite of what we want. ( X )

B. Whether the department store will continue to accept paper coupons from its competitors - nothing mentioned like this in the question. - OUT OF SCOPE. ( X )

C. Whether customers who currently use paper coupons will print out the online coupons before redeeming them - since the purpose of launching online Coupons is to eliminate or lower the paper wastage. Why would company want the customers to come and print for the same? That will just do the opposite of what the company want. ( X )

D. How often the department store will mail flyers to customers to inform them of the availability of online coupons - Depends if the company will just have to mail flyers once or twice a year => Reduction in paper wastage. ( ✔ )

E. Whether customers will be able to make their purchases online instead of by visiting the store - IRRELEVANT. ( X )
Show Answer

gvij2017 · Answer

Giving it a understandable form, argument is about a department store which mails paper coupons. 
D/s observed that very less % of paper coupons are utilized by customers. 
Under new strategy to reduce the amount of paper waste, D/s encourage customers to use online coupons available at its website.

Boiling it down, the D\s plans to move paper coupons to online coupons so that paper saving can be done.

After going through options, C and D are contenders.

Lets first take option C.

Whether customers who currently use paper coupons will print out the online coupons before redeeming them 
According to argument the proportion of "customers who currently use paper coupons" is very less, so whether they take print out of online coupons doesn't matter. What about larger segment of customers to which D/s mails paper coupons and coupons remains unused. The argument is more concerned about saving of waste paper coupons. 
This option doesn't talk about it. Therefore, this option has no value to evaluate the plan's success.

Now option D, 
How often the department store will mail flyers to customers to inform them of the availability of online coupons
Flyers: It is kind of paper template advertising the availability of online coupons. 
Now rewriting the option D in two logical opposite ways as below.

Very rarely the department store will mail flyers to customers to inform them of the availability of online coupons:
Plan is successful.

Very frequently the department store will mail flyers to customers to inform them of the availability of online coupons.
Plan is unsuccessful.

Therefore, D is correct.

However, I have a doubt on use of word "mail" in two contexts of given argument. What I understood is that the word "mail" refers to forward in physical form.

Please let me know if my understanding wrong and at what point.

mishraesha · Answer

how is it assumed that mailing flyers is the only way the customers can be informed about the availability of the coupons? if the store's main goal is to reduce paper wastage, why would it mail out flyers in the first place? there certainly are other ways by which customers can be informed about the coupons.

VerbalBot · Answer

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A department store has determined that its customers redeem

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