Sales of microwave ovens have increased considerably over the last year. In order to take advantage of this market trend, Hitek Appliances plans to increase production of its own model of microwave oven, while continuing its already extensive advertising of this product.
Which of the following, if true, provides most support for the view that Hitek Appliances cannot increase its sales of microwave ovens by adopting the plan outlined above?
A. Hitek Appliances’s average inventory of microwave ovens awaiting shipment to retailers has dropped from 1,000 to 750 over the last year.
B. Market research shows that potential customers regard Hitek Appliances’s microwave ovens to be high in quality.
C. Though Hitek Appliances’s microwave ovens are priced comparably to those of its competition, sales of Hitek Appliances’s microwave ovens have fallen in the last year.
D. Hitek Appliances’s microwave oven is one of four brands of microwave oven that have together accounted for the majority of the last year’s increase in sales.
E. Although it sells 95% of the microwave ovens that it produces, Hitek Appliances’s share of all microwave oven sales has declined over the last year.