A responsibly-sourced, sustainable boutique clothing line is

Question

A responsibly-sourced, sustainable boutique clothing line is shockingly unconcerned with negative economic trends, despite analysts’ beliefs that consumers will increasingly ignore more expensive, sustainable goods as the market worsens. The company reasons that it will be able to maintain business because, in a weakened economy, it believes competitors are likely to fail, creating an oversupply of sustainable materials and reducing overall cost for the clothing line.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the clothing line’s reasoning?

A. Larger sustainable businesses are more likely to fail in a weakened economy than smaller sustainable businesses.
B. The clothing line has been hugely successful even in the weakened economy, showing consistent quarter after quarter growth.
C. Other retailers, particularly benchmark peers, are showing fantastic growth even in a weakened economy.
D. The materials used by the clothing line were recently declared unsafe for consumption by a federal regulatory body.
E. A sustainable clothing competitor recently opened new locations, citing an unfilled market niche.

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Question 35: Sustainable Clothing

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Biswadip · Answer

The conclusion is " The company reasons that it will be able to maintain business. in a weakened economy, it believes competitors are likely to fail, creating an oversupply of sustainable materials and reducing overall cost for the clothing line."
 
So the clothing line believes that in an weakened economy, they will get customers.

D. The materials used by the clothing line were recently declared unsafe for consumption by a federal regulatory body.
This must be the answer.  If consumers find the materials of the clothing line unsafe, then the business can no more sustain.

IMO, other all options are irrelevant.

nlsiu2020 · Answer

Why not c?

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AnirudhaS · Answer

A responsibly-sourced, sustainable boutique clothing line is shockingly unconcerned with negative economic trends, despite analysts’ beliefs that consumers will increasingly ignore more expensive, sustainable goods as the market worsens. The company reasons that it will be able to maintain business because, in a weakened economy, it believes competitors are likely to fail, creating an oversupply of sustainable materials and reducing overall cost for the clothing line.

A. Larger sustainable businesses are more likely to fail in a weakened economy than smaller sustainable businesses.
 Larger vs smaller comparison is irrelevant to if this particular boutique line will fail

B. The clothing line has been hugely successful even in the weakened economy, showing consistent quarter after quarter growth.
 As all the investment companies proclaim - "Please remember that past performance may not be indicative of future results."

C. Other retailers, particularly benchmark peers, are showing fantastic growth even in a weakened economy.
  The argument is structured so that the boutique clothing line will do good in a weakened economy because it believes competitors are likely to fail. This is saying, on the contrary, the competitors are doing well. Therefore this weakens the conclusion.

D. The materials used by the clothing line were recently declared unsafe for consumption by a federal regulatory body.
 The declaration does not automatically mean that the boutique clothing line will not be able to maintain business. For e.g. the economy might be so affected that purchasing power of people reduce significantly and in such a time people would be less worried about if the clothes are unsafe or not.

E. A sustainable clothing competitor recently opened new locations, citing an unfilled market niche.
 This does not mean the company we are talking about would fail.

IMO:  C

winterschool · Answer

A responsibly-sourced, sustainable boutique clothing line is shockingly unconcerned with negative economic trends, despite analysts’ beliefs that consumers will increasingly ignore more expensive, sustainable goods as the market worsens. The company reasons that it will be able to maintain business because, in a weakened economy, it believes competitors are likely to fail, creating an oversupply of sustainable materials and reducing overall cost for the clothing line.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the clothing line’s reasoning?

A. Larger sustainable businesses are more likely to fail in a weakened economy than smaller sustainable businesses.  Incorrect

Larger and smaller businesses - irrelevant

B. The clothing line has been hugely successful even in the weakened economy, showing consistent quarter after quarter growth.  Incorrect

support the reasoning

C. Other retailers, particularly benchmark peers, are showing fantastic growth even in a weakened economy.  Incorrect

it weakens but not mostly

D. The materials used by the clothing line were recently declared unsafe for consumption by a federal regulatory body.  Correct

the clothing line need to be concern because its main source material is not sustainable

E. A sustainable clothing competitor recently opened new locations, citing an unfilled market niche.  Irrelevant

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation:

A responsibly-sourced, sustainable boutique clothing line is shockingly unconcerned with negative economic trends, despite analysts’ beliefs that consumers will increasingly ignore more expensive, sustainable goods as the market worsens. The company reasons that it will be able to maintain business because, in a weakened economy, it believes competitors are likely to fail, creating an oversupply of sustainable materials and reducing overall cost for the clothing line.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the clothing line’s reasoning?

A. Larger sustainable businesses are more likely to fail in a weakened economy than smaller sustainable businesses. 
 B. The clothing line has been hugely successful even in the weakened economy, showing consistent quarter after quarter growth. 
 C. Other retailers, particularly benchmark peers, are showing fantastic growth even in a weakened economy. 
 D. The materials used by the clothing line were recently declared unsafe for consumption by a federal regulatory body. 
 E. A sustainable clothing competitor recently opened new locations, citing an unfilled market niche.

Question Type:   Weaken
  Boil It Down:   A sustainable boutique clothing line doesn’t care if the economy goes bad, even if analysts say people won’t buy sustainable clothes in a bad economy. The clothing line believes they can outlast their competitors, who will likely go out of business in a bad economy before theirs would.
  Goal:    Find the option that best weakens the clothing line’s argument that they will succeed because their competitors will fail first in a bad economy.

Analysis:  
So this clothing line has a serious amount of confidence! They believe that, even in a bad economy, their business will not only survive - they may also thrive. Their logic? People will stop buying from their competitors first, which will put competitors out of business, leaving them with far less competition in the marketplace.

Your job is to find the option that would best destroy the clothing line’s plan for domination in the clothing marketplace:

A. Larger sustainable businesses are more likely to fail in a weakened economy than smaller sustainable businesses.
 A is incorrect because it would suggest that a small, boutique clothing line would not fail prior to a big-box retailer.

B. The clothing line has been hugely successful even in the weakened economy, showing consistent quarter after quarter growth.
 B is incorrect because it would support the line’s reasoning.

C. Other retailers, particularly benchmark peers, are showing fantastic growth even in a weakened economy.
 C is incorrect because it does not benefit the line to know that competitors are thriving.

D. The materials used by the clothing line were recently declared unsafe for consumption by a federal regulatory body.
 D is correct because it suggests a regulatory issue for the clothing line that may limit expansion into new markets and maintenance of current business. This would be the most problematic occurrence for the company.

E. A sustainable clothing competitor recently opened new locations, citing an unfilled market niche.
 E is incorrect for the same reason as C.

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Fdambro294 · Answer

I believe the analysis for why C is wrong can be explained a little more fully.

D is definitely the correct answer.

However, I believe the reason why C is wrong is the following:

(c) other retailers, particularly benchmark peers, are showing fantastic growth even in a weakened economy.

The company is making a Prediction. They believe they will be able to “maintain business”. This prediction is supported by the belief that there will be an oversupply of “sustainable materials” as a result of other companies going out of business, thereby lowering this company’s overall cost.

The problem with C is that we are told only that “other” retailers are showing fantastic growth. We do not know how many this is. Perhaps 4 or 5 of the clothing line’s benchmark peers are doing great, while another 200 are failing miserably.

The prediction can still work as they believe it will if enough competitors fail such that an oversupply of sustainable materials is provided. This could mean that only 2 or 3 big companies need to fail to create such an oversupply. The company’s prediction can still work even if “other” companies are doing well.

If D occurs, this would be much more problematic for this “sustainably sourced” clothing boutique. Even if they do get their oversupply to occur, the materials they use to maintain their business has been declared unsafe for human consumption.

This fact makes it much more unlikely that the clothing line will be able to maintain its business even if it gets its “oversupply” that it is counting in.

This is definitely one of those close ones where we have to think which AC has the MOST damaging effect to the prediction: that the company will be able to maintain its business.

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VerbalBot · Answer

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A responsibly-sourced, sustainable boutique clothing line is

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A responsibly-sourced, sustainable boutique clothing line is

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