Bunuel wrote:
In an effort to reduce its parcel delivery costs, an online retailer partnered with stores in major cities to allow customers to pick up purchases at stores within one day of placing the order, as opposed to using the retailer’s expedited shipping service. In the year that followed, over 30% of purchases were fulfilled with the in-person pickup option. However, for that same year the retailer’s parcel delivery cost was up more than 10% over the previous year.
Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the discrepancy above?
A. Only certain products were eligible to be picked up at stores.
B. The ability to pick up purchases at stores was inconvenient for customers who did not live in major cities.
C. The retailer fulfilled over 60% more orders than it did the previous year.
D. The average cost of a parcel delivery was 10% higher than it was the previous year.
E. Parcel delivery costs increased year over year for the online retail industry as a whole.
Project CR Butler: Critical Reasoning
For all CR butler Questions Click Here Fido10 - This is what the question means:
An online retailer gave the option of 'next day store pickup' instead of expedited shipping (one day shipping). So people could pick up the order from the store instead of the retailer shipping it to them.
Now we are given that 30% purchases over the year were fulfilled by in person pickup (no shipping had to be done for that).
Still the overall shipping expense of the company increased by 10% over the year.
How could this happen? What if the retailer got many more orders this year? Say if they got 100 orders last year and shipped them all but they got 200 orders this year but shipped only 70% of them (i.e. 140), they would have still shipped more orders this year and hence would have spent more on shipping.
Or say the shipping rates doubled this year. Then even if they again got 100 orders, and shipped 70 of them, they may still end paying much more than last year.
A. Only certain products were eligible to be picked up at stores.
Doesn't matter. 30% products were still picked up at store.
B. The ability to pick up purchases at stores was inconvenient for customers who did not live in major cities.
Only 30% orders were store picked. Other deliveries went out as they do normally. It doesn't explain the increase in shipping costs.
C. The retailer fulfilled over 60% more orders than it did the previous year.
Correct. Now we know that if last year, the retailer fulfilled 100 orders, this year they fulfilled 160. So 70% of those will be 112 orders. So if last year they shipped all 100 orders, this year they shipped 112 orders. This would explain the 10% increase in shipping costs.
D. The average cost of a parcel delivery was 10% higher than it was the previous year.
This would explain the 10% increase in shipping costs if this year too 100 orders were shipped. But this year only 70 orders were shipped. So this doesn't explain the 10% increase in shipping cost.
If we are not given that the number of orders changed this year, we should evaluate this option assuming status quo i.e. the same number of orders were received this year too.
E. Parcel delivery costs increased year over year for the online retail industry as a whole.
This option tells us that shipping costs increased for the entire industry as a whole. It doesn't explain the discrepancy in our numbers.
Answer (C)
" that means that the percentage of the in-person pickup option could be 40%, 50% and either 100% !
if we assume it is 90%, and that last year, the retailer fulfilled 100 orders, this year then, according to C, they fulfilled 160. So 10% of those will be 16 orders. So if last year they shipped all 100 orders, this year they shipped 16 orders.