A vendor at a farmers’ market wishes to increase sales of her organic

Question

A vendor at a farmers’ market wishes to increase sales of her organic radicchio. A 5-for-the-price-of-4 sale was successful in increasing sales of her organic peach marmalade, so the vendor decides to offer the same deal on the radicchio.

Which of the following is an assumption on which her plan depends?

(A) Consumers enjoy radicchio as much as they enjoy peach marmalade 
 
(B) Consumers who are willing to purchase large quantities of marmalade, which has a shelf life of one year, will be similarly willing to purchase large quantities of radicchio, which has a shelf life of 5-10 days.

(C) Radicchio is currently in season.

(D) Due to the secret recipe used for the vendor’s peach marmalade, the vendor has fewer competitors selling a comparable peach marmalade at the farmers’ market than selling radicchio.

(E) The profit from selling 5 bunches of radicchio for the price of 4 will be greater than the profit from selling 5 jars of peach marmalade for the price of 4.

vivesomnium · Answer

A. Consumers enjoy radicchio as much as they enjoy peach marmalade : consumer's enjoyment is a subjective term, even if consumers enjoy it as much, it doesnt mean that the same sale would work since many other factors other than enjoyment (price per bottle for one) will determine decision to purchase or not.

b. Consumers who are willing to purchase large quantities of marmalade, which has a shelf life of one year, will be similarly willing to purchase large quantities of radicchio, which has a shelf life of 5-10 days. : Correct option- 5 for price of 4 could work for marmalade because they could store it for an year. If the shelf life of radicchio is large, consumers will not want to go in for an offer which gives them a discount if they buy a larger number. ( 5 for price of 4)

c. Radicchio is currently in season. : That has no relationship to the probability of the scheme being effective

d. Due to the secret recipe used for the vendor’s peach marmalade, the vendor has fewer competitors selling a comparable peach marmalade at the farmers’ market than selling radicchio. : Since taste is not what the vendor is basing his scheme on, but selling larger numbers, this is irrelevant.

e. The profit from selling 5 bunches of radicchio for the price of 4 will be greater than the profit from selling 5 jars of peach marmalade for the price of 4.: Sales are being talked of here, not profit!

sarangadhar · Answer

this is how I thought:
I could eliminate C, D, and E. same reasons as given by vivesomnium. Next I eliminated B, thinking that we don't have any clue about shelf life based on the stimulus and becomes irrelevant. And then thought that radicchio could be sold well enough as marmalade based on A. when Consumers enjoy something, that would bring the sales anyway.

Now, coming to vivesomnium explanation:
Based on the reasoning given by vivesomnium for A, if it is true that enjoying something isn't enough for buying it, then it is also true that willingness on something isn't enough for buying it. we have more factors to buys something... So, I am kinda of not fully satisfied with this.

So, can I request for more promising explanation?

heygirl · Answer

I too think it is A. Not able to understand the reasoning for B.

sarangadhar · Answer

I guess we all looking for the explanation here to clear the debate between A and B.

IEsailor · Answer

A vendor at a farmers’ market wishes to increase sales of her organic radicchio. A 5-for-the-price-of-4 sale was successful in increasing sales of her organic peach marmalade, so the vendor decides to offer the same deal on the radicchio.

Which of the following is an assumption on which her plan depends?

a. Consumers enjoy radicchio as much as they enjoy peach marmalade   ( Good assumption but maybe not good enuf. Shelf life, Price etc are objective variants and hence better than a more subjective explanation of Enjoyment ) 
 
b. Consumers who are willing to purchase large quantities of marmalade, which has a shelf life of one year, will be similarly willing to purchase large quantities of radicchio, which has a shelf life of 5-10 days.  (  Most "Objective explanation".)

c. Radicchio is currently in season.   ( Irrelevant as no season mentioned for Peach )

d. Due to the secret recipe used for the vendor’s peach marmalade, the vendor has fewer competitors selling a comparable peach marmalade at the farmers’ market than selling radicchio.   ( Definately not an assumption !!! as no talk of competition for Radicchio )

e. The profit from selling 5 bunches of radicchio for the price of 4 will be greater than the profit from selling 5 jars of peach marmalade for the price of 4.   ( Number game not wanted. Profits not object of consideration but success of his deal )

dreambeliever · Answer

I had marked A as the answer too.

While i understand the reasoning behind B, I dont think Shelf life is a necessary assumption for the conclusion in the question. Mabe the size of radicchio in stock is small. Thus 5 of them might not be a whole lot. The deal might also be successful by attracting a lot of customers who have a large family. We have no information about the average consumption rate of radicchio/marmalade of the people who shop in that store. Per the LSAT CR bible, in an assumption question, negating the answer choice should attack the argument. For B, if we say customers will  not   like to buy large quantities of radicchio because of shelf life it still leaves other possible reasons for buying it such as large families, smaller size etc. However, A seems slightly better because on negating A we get that customers dont like radicchio as much as marmalade. This would be a clear reason for not buying as much radicchio no matter how good the deal is.

IMO, overall its not a very well made question.

mvictor · Answer

the "correct" assumptions tells about the marmelade consumers...so what?
I don't think it's a good question for practice.
even if the guys who bought A will not buy B, it doesnt mean that the plan will not succeed.

warriorguy · Answer

Need more clarity on B please. I selected A with the same reasoning as the one listed above.

@e-gmat or verbal experts?

sayantanc2k · Answer

Assumption type questions are  must be true  type. Suppose that consumers enjoy radicchio NOT as much as (BUT slightly less than) they enjoy peach marmalade. Even in this case the sale is expected to be successful. Negating statement A does not break down the argument. Hence A is not the correct option.

roadrunner · Answer

Notes:
Far -> ↑Rac Sale  
Prev peac offr succ (+)
same offr for Rac (c)

Option A & B - good choices, keep for now
B,C -> does not talk about how that will incr. sales. Wrong choices
E - >   reminded me that sales and profit is not same thing. eliminate choice

A & B -> only B has better reasoning that diff. in Rac and Peach shelf life does not change consumer pref.

Ans B

JonDenningPowerScore · Answer

A student sent me this question today asking for an explanation, and in little more than a glance I was able to reply with the following:

"I suspect the creators of this question would say that the answer is B (?), but frankly I would ignore this question entirely. It’s not a credible example of how assumptions work or are tested—assumption answer choices are required by the argument, so they must be true in order for the argument to even be possible; B clearly fails that test (as do the rest of these answers) so there are no assumptions even listed as options—so I’d chalk this one up to poor design on the part of whomever wrote it. You won’t see a flawed construction like this on the actual test.

Sidenote: I find it really disappointing when I see content from companies/people that isn’t created to the same standards as the test itself, so I’m really sorry that you were left struggling with a question here that should’ve never been distributed to the public in the first place. This is one of the poorer attempts at simulation I’ve encountered, in fact, which is frustrating I’m sure, but at least take comfort in the fact that you were stumped by an unanswerable mess rather than a legitimate GMAT question."

So for anyone out there attempting this question and feeling similarly stuck, take heart. It's not your fault. This question is terrible.

chesstitans · Answer

B is much better than A because B directly links with the purchase, or sales

JonDenningPowerScore · Answer

Keep in mind though that with certain types of questions (Assumption and Must Be True chief among them) the test doesn't concern itself with  relative  attractiveness/correctness in the answers. An assumption is a hardline, testable component of an argument, in the sense that it is both required by the author's belief (which no answers here are) as well as proven by it (again, not a single answer comes close).

If an answer doesn't meet that standard of right, then it's wrong. "More or less correct" may apply to types like Weaken or Strengthen, where on rare occasions you'll have two answers with the desired effect and you must decide which is more impactful (weakens or strengthens more), but Assumption questions are far more black and white.

Again guys this is just a lousy question.

Alphatango · Answer

Stumped. Marked A .B was talking about large quantities and shelf life. While the question revolved whether the strategy for selling marmalade will be successful for radicchio.

AbhinavBankhwal · Answer

I marked the answer choice A too, and immediately realised my mistake. Option A is a trap.
No one eats 5 bottles of marmalade in a span of some days. Obviously, 5 bottles are meant to to be stored for some time. Therefore, shelf life plays an important role in picking the correct assumption.
Had option B not been one of the answer choices, option A would have been the best pick, I opine.

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION 
This question asks us to find the assumption that, if true, would best support the vendor’s conclusion that a 5-for-4 sale will increase sales of radicchio.

Keep in mind that the conclusion is simply that this  special offer will cause sales to increase  –  the conclusion says nothing about profitability , or about any specific increase in sales that would be needed for success.
 
A. It likely goes without saying that most people don’t enjoy radicchio as much as they enjoy peach marmalade. Does that mean that offering a good deal on radicchio won’t sell more radicchio? Not at all. There is no burden to sell as much radicchio as marmalade – just to sell more radicchio than is currently being sold.
 
B. The vendor makes the assumption that a type of sale that works for marmalade will work for radicchio. Consumers may be willing to purchase large amounts of marmalade because marmalade does not readily spoil, and makes sense to stock up on. The same type of sale may be unsuccessful for a product that must be used in a much shorter period of time. B is the correct answer.
 
C. This is not an assumption upon which the vendor’s argument depends, because it is given in the scenario that she has radicchio to sell – hence, the 5-for-4 special.
 
D. This fact weighs against the success of the vendor’s radicchio sale, and, as such, is not an assumption upon which her argument depends.
 
E. The vendor’s conclusion is simply that her plan will increase sales. Do not confuse profitability with sales. It is not necessary to assume anything about profitability to support the conclusion that a particular measure will increase sales.
 
 The answer is B.

brs1cob · Answer

i think 'sales' is the key word here in the conclusion.

so we need to select an answer choice which talks about sales or quantity.

hence option B is the correct answer.

gagan03 · Answer

How B is a solution of this stimulus when shelf life has no mention in the stimulus?

Rainman91 · Answer

Between A and B there is a distinction.

You can purchase something not solely because you enjoy it, rather you need it. Enjoying as a factor is not important. But in B, every details is necessary to consider when selling them in bulk.

Also negate A, they don't enjoy it as much. (who cares?) as long as you do, its fine.

Negate B, and the entire answer falls apart.

A vendor at a farmers’ market wishes to increase sales of her organic

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

A vendor at a farmers’ market wishes to increase sales of her organic

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