simi200207 wrote:
Megalimpet is a nationwide owner of office space. They have major office buildings in the downtowns of several cities in the 48 lower states, and rent this space to individual companies. Megalimpet office spaces vary from small office to large suites, and every space has custom-designed wall-to-wall carpeting. The carpet in several Megalimpet facilities needed replacing. The winning bid for the nationwide carpet replacement was submitted by Bathyderm Carpet Company (BCC). The bid contract involves all delivery costs, all installation, and any ongoing maintenance and upkeep while the carpet is under the three-year warranty. Both BCC executives and independent consultants they hired felt BCC would be able to perform all these services for far less than their bid price; these circumstances would allow BCC to reap a considerable profit.
Which of the following, if true, most calls in question the argument that BCC will make a large profit from this contract with Megalimpet?
A) All the carpets will have to be transported by train from BCC factory in Louisville, KY, to Megalimpet’s locations from coast to coast.
B) BCC has already supplied carpets to a number of restaurant chains, and some of those spaces are as large as Megalimpet’s largest office spaces.
C) The carpet installation teams will have to cut different sizes of the carpets for the different size office suites in the Megalimpet buildings.
D)The material in BCC carpets degrades rapidly when it comes into contact with standard toner, found in most laser printers and photocopiers; the degraded sections are unsightly and smell bad, so they often need to be replaced.
E)The next competing bid after BCC’s was 50% higher than BCC’s bid
kUDOS IF U LIKE EM
Hi simi200207,
Here's how I approached the question:
First I read the question stem: "Which of the following, if true, most calls in question the argument that BCC will make a large profit from this contract with Megalimpet?"
I see that the question is asking about profitability of BCC. Then I looked at the passage.
The first few sentences describe Megalimpet. Not the company we are considering here. We care about their vendor - BCC.
BCC placed their bid and claimed it was profitable based on "all delivery costs, all installation, and any ongoing maintenance and upkeep while the carpet is under the three-year warranty."
So now I go to the answer choices and use a process of elimination.
a) The passage says they already took into consideration "all delivery costs." Therefore they must have already known about this expense and still believed that the bid would be profitable.
b) Having supplied carpets to restaurants in the past does not mean that the bid would be any less profitable. If anything, it would strengthen the executives' conclusion because they are backed by experience.
c) The passage says they already took into consideration "all installation." Therefore they must have already known about this expense and still believed that the bid would be profitable.
d) This answer choice provides us with a NEW variable. It is possible that the executives and consultants had not previously done work for office spaces and therefore have not considered the impact of toner on maintenance costs. I keep this one and make sure there isn't a better option available.
e) This one is irrelevant. Some other company's bid does not impact BCC's profitability. Profitability is only impacted by revenue and expenses.
Correct answer D because all others are eliminated.