chesstitans wrote:
Retail clothing stores should hold “one-day-only” sales to clear merchandise that has been returned because it is defective in some way. The stores should sell this merchandise for up to 70 percent less than the original retail price. Stores will find these sales to be an effective way of getting rid of defective merchandise as long as they inform customers that the discounted merchandise is nonreturnable.
The author assumes which of the following about the “one-day-only” sale merchandise in predicting the effectiveness of these sales?
A) The defects in the merchandise are not so significant that customers will be unwilling to pay even the sale price.
B) The rate of returns when merchandise is new makes these “one-day-only” sales key to a store’s profitability.
C) Too few shoppers purchase merchandise at full retail price.
D) If these sales become popular, stores will have to have them more often.
E) The majority of the “one-day-only” sale merchandise will be purchased by shoppers who would otherwise not shop at those stores.
KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:
A
The author concludes that sales of greatly discounted merchandise would be effective at clearing out defective merchandise, citing as evidence the fact that the merchandise would be non-returnable (final sale). But the sales will only be effective at getting rid of defective merchandise if customers are actually willing to purchase the merchandise; thus, the author must be assuming that nothing will prevent people from actually buying the defective clothing during these one-day sales. (A) states this assumption clearly. As long as the defects aren't so bad that people won't buy the clothing even at a large discount, the sales can be effective.
(B) incorrectly shifts from what the argument discusses (the effectiveness of these sales) to the profitability of the store in general, which is irrelevant to the argument. (C), (D), and (E) are outside the scope of the argument. We aren't given any information about how merchandise sells when it is not on sale, so (C) is incorrect. While it might be true that
stores will need to hold these sales more frequently if they become popular, that isn't relevant to the argument that the sales will be effective in clearing out defective merchandise, making (D) incorrect. Finally, we don't know anything about the shoppers going to the sale, so (E) is incorrect.
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