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KarishmaB
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I am still confused about option A. While I understand comparing combined sales of other gasolines of last year vs this year can give a good picture but there can be too many variables involved. As an example what if -
1)All other gasoline also gave 10% discount seeing this?
2)What if there are new gasoline open this year so combined revenue this year august will be more
3) What if global price of gasoline has gone down so thats the reason for increase of sales.
4)What if there were many gasoline stores that were in renovation last year.
All of these factors can distort the image of this august vs last august sales and we cannot determine for sure if promotion is the reason or not.

Please let me know if I am missing something or wrongly interpreted the option.
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awesome_burst

On assumption-based questions, our goal is never to prove the conclusion correct. It's common for the argument to have multiple flaws, only one of which is addressed in an answer. A is one thing we might want to look at. If overall gas sales are NOT up 10% this year, then it's more plausible that the promotion was helpful, and if they ARE up by 10% or more, then the promotion isn't looking as good. Neither answer would rule out all the other possibilities, but we don't need it to.
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@KarishmaB

I have one doubt regarding the conclustion of the argument: " so evidently the promotion was successful as a means of boosting sales.". Please clarify whether in the conclusion "sales" means sales only in the month of august or overall sales afterwards the promotion. If I assume that in the conclusion "sales" means sales only in august then option C appears to me correct.
Let's assume a hypothetical scenario that there is a customer who buys 2 gallons of gasoline every month. Now because of the promotion if that customer buys 10 gallons in august and does not buy any gasoline for the next 4 months, then in that case it can be said that the promotion has boosted the sale because we are looking into the sale of only August, not of any other month. If there are many customers like this, then those customers can account for the 10% increase in the sale of gasoline. Please tell me where my thought process is wrong.
KarishmaB


Here is the video explanation of this question: https://youtu.be/x6WwaP5PBYc


In the promotion, any customer who made a purchase of ten or more gallons of gasoline was entitled to a free car wash.
For the month of August, XT experienced a ten percent increase in gasoline sales as compared to sales in August the previous year,

Conclusion: the promotion was successful as a means of boosting sales.

Here was the first thing that came to my mind: They are comparing sales in aug this time vs sales in aug last year. That's too much of a time gap. What if this year, the revenue has anyway gone up?
Note that the conclusion is based on "increase in total sales". There is no distinction between transactions of less than 10 gallons and more than 10 gallons.

What would help us evaluate this conclusion?

The only relevant options are (A) and (C) so let's look at them.

(A) In the areas in which XT’s gasoline stations operate, how did total combined gasoline sales for all gasoline stations last August compare with sales for the previous August?

This questions whether the overall gasoline revenue has seen arise this time.
- Say combined gasoline sales for all stations this time is 10% more than the previous August. Then most gasoline stations would have seen this 10% rise in August sales. Hence the promotion would have had no impact.
- Say combined gasoline sales for all stations this time is no more than the previous August. Then we can say with more certainty that the promotion has had impact.
Hence how we answer this question affects our conclusion.

(C) Were there any customers who bought ten or more gallons at an XT gasoline station during the promotion who would have or more gallons at an XT gasoline in lower quantities, but more frequently, if the promotion had not been in effect?

Here is the reason this is not helpful to evaluate. The station is trying to increase its overall revenue - whether it is through 10 gallons sales or fewer gallons sale is immaterial. The overall sales has increased.
When we compare customers who bought 10 or more gallons fewer times compared to earlier when they bought the SAME amount of fuel but by visiting more frequently, it doesn't impact the station. These people are today also buying the same amount of fuel that they were buying a year ago. Whether they did it in small amounts or one big, it doesn't impact the success of the promotion at all. What impacts is whether there are people who were not buying at this station or were buying less total amount in the month before but are now buying higher amount. That is what we need to evaluate. That is what will define the success of the promotion.

Answer (A)
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Getting fuel for their vehicle is not a once in 6 months activity. More frequently may be weekly while less frequently may be once in 2 weeks or a month. Also we need to find whether the promotion was successful as a means of boosting sales compared to last year. The promotion was run in August and August showed 10% increase in sales. If September showed 10% decrease in sales compared to last year because of the promotion, then there was no boost in sales.
So the question is - did the promotion boost sales? Did it attract more revenue than the station would have otherwise got?
Then whether there were any existing customers who bought in bulk at the promotion or not implies nothing. They got in the same revenue that they would have otherwise got in too. The timing could vary a bit.



kartickdey
@KarishmaB

I have one doubt regarding the conclustion of the argument: " so evidently the promotion was successful as a means of boosting sales.". Please clarify whether in the conclusion "sales" means sales only in the month of august or overall sales afterwards the promotion. If I assume that in the conclusion "sales" means sales only in august then option C appears to me correct.
Let's assume a hypothetical scenario that there is a customer who buys 2 gallons of gasoline every month. Now because of the promotion if that customer buys 10 gallons in august and does not buy any gasoline for the next 4 months, then in that case it can be said that the promotion has boosted the sale because we are looking into the sale of only August, not of any other month. If there are many customers like this, then those customers can account for the 10% increase in the sale of gasoline. Please tell me where my thought process is wrong.

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I got your point. You want to mean the sales in the long term, not only of August. Thanks for your clarification.
KarishmaB
Getting fuel for their vehicle is not a once in 6 months activity. More frequently may be weekly while less frequently may be once in 2 weeks or a month. Also we need to find whether the promotion was successful as a means of boosting sales compared to last year. The promotion was run in August and August showed 10% increase in sales. If September showed 10% decrease in sales compared to last year because of the promotion, then there was no boost in sales.
So the question is - did the promotion boost sales? Did it attract more revenue than the station would have otherwise got?
Then whether there were any existing customers who bought in bulk at the promotion or not implies nothing. They got in the same revenue that they would have otherwise got in too. The timing could vary a bit.




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