Customers in brick and mortar furniture stores

Yes, this is an apples & oranges question.

You must make sure you are comparing the same thing.

The keyword is UNLIKE here.

We are comparing:
1) Customers in brick and mortar furniture stores
2) customers in online furniture stores.

We are NOT comparing

1) Customers in brick and mortar furniture stores
2) online furniture stores

In order to make this distinction, we need to use the word "THOSE" as shown in the correct answer.

Between D and B; the " ; " implies a new clause after the first clause and requires a subject and hence D

How can option d be correct as and -aswell are redundant & and not is incorrect form.
Can someone. Explain why option d is correct
According to me option b is correct

First of all, while concision is technically a tested area on the GMAT, it rarely is used and should only be employed when all grammar and meaning issues have been exhausted.

From a grammar standpoint, we can only use a semicolon if we are connecting two independent clauses but option b doesn't have an independent clause following the semicolon. That will leave us to option d.

From a meaning standpoint, the phrase 'as well' does add some meaningful emphasis to the fact that in some cases people buy extra items, so we would not view that phrase as redundant/unnecessary.

KW

Posted from my mobile device

Customers in brick and mortar furniture stores, unlike in online furniture stores, do not impulsively buy things besides what they came in for, not purchasing a bar stool and bookshelf when they come in for a couch, but they leave with a couch only.

(A) in online furniture stores, do not impulsively buy things besides what they came in for, not purchasing a bar stool and bookshelf when they come in for a couch, but they leave with a couch only
-- a.1"Customers in brick and mortar furniture stores," is compared with "Online furniture store"
-- a.2 before "but" we have verb-ing modifier and after "but" , we have a clause. So Issue with Parallelism.

(B) those in online furniture stores do not impulsively buy things besides what they came in for; do not purchase a bar stool and bookshelf when they come in for a couch, but leave with only a couch
-- a1 is fixed.
-- b1- the sentence after (;) should have one subject do not. The structure looks awkward. Let's look for a better choice.

(C) online furniture stores, do not impulsively buy things besides what they came in for; someone will not purchase a bar stool and bookshelf when they come in for a couch but will leave with only a couch
-- a2 is fixed but a1 is still there.

(D) those in online furniture stores, do not impulsively buy things besides what they came in for; someone who comes in for a couch will leave with a couch only and not purchase a bar stool and bookshelf as well
-- This is the correct choice.

(E) in online furniture stores, do not impulsively buy things besides what they came in for, not purchasing a bar stool and bookshelf when they come in for a couch, but they leave only with a couch
-- a.1 and a.2 issues.

Hi Experts,
I agree that option B is the right answer here, but I have one doubt, can???t ellipsis be in play here when it comes to ???(customers) in online furniture stores?
Thanks in advance!

SajjitaKundu The answer is definitely D, not B. As for ellipsis, that doesn't apply here. In the correct answer (and in B, too, for that matter), we have the pronoun "those" standing in for "customers." Adding the word "customers" after "those" would actually be incorrect; we want one or the other.

As we are comparing customers in both the statement we need to look for the keyword those. Also when we use the semicolon means they are two independent sentences . So we need a INdependent sentence after the semicolon which is properly explained in option D

Hi ManhattanPrep GMATNinja @e-gmat GMATPill

Can someone here elaborate if repeating "customer" is mandatory here or not? Thank You

Hello KARISHMA315,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, repeating "customers" is not mandatory and, in fact, would be redundant.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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