Super Express Shipping Company has implemented a new distribution system that can get almost every package to its destination the day after it is sent. The company worries that this more efficient system will result in lower sales of its premium next-day delivery service, because its two-day service will usually arrive the following day anyway. The company plans to encourage sales of its next-day service by intentionally delaying delivery of its two-day packages so that they will not be delivered the following day, even if the package arrives at its destination city in time for next-day delivery.

The company's plan assumes that

(A) deliberate delay of packages will not affect the company's image in a way that significantly reduces its ability to attract and retain customers
(B) most people do not have a preference for either two-day or next-day delivery
(C) if the plan is not implemented, the company would lose more money in lost sales of overnight deliveries than it would save with its new efficient distribution system
(D) the overnight service is too expensive to be attractive to most customers currently
(E) competing companies' delivery services rarely deliver packages to their destination earlier than their promised time


CR28931.01
Verbal Review 2020 NEW QUESTION
_________________

The argument is that the new system will make customers prefer regular '2-day delivery' to premium 'next-day delivery' because the regular delivery takes one day anyways. They want to solve this by making sure regular delivery does not take one day. The main assumption of this argument is that people pick their service because of the one-day timeline, and not because of other reasons. A weaker assumption is that causing a delay in supply will not affect sales (this requires that potential customers know about the delay). As we know what to look for, we can look for it without pausing to think about each individual answer. This is a Precise approach.

Going over the options, (A) is exactly what we expect and is our answer.
_________________

Got it !!!




Thanks

DavidTutorexamPAL VeritasKarishma gmat1393 nightblade354 generis

How many types of services does SES Comp offer?

Ok, so package delivered today will reach tomorrow to destination.


Is not this same as above?
_________________

we can come down to two options : A & C.

For C, it is a bit extreme.
We cannot assume that if this plan is not implemented, company would necessarily lose more money.
Company is assuming that its new efficient distribution system would not make up for the revenue loss and that's the reason it is proposing the plan but this could be one of many other plans to meet company's objective.

i chose wrong answer c...

how do we negate c? C. if the plan is implemented, the company would lose more money in lost sales of overnight deliveries than it would save with its new efficient distribution system?

This would weaken the argument, right?

I don't understand why B is not an assumption here.

The passage states that "The company worries that this more efficient system will result in lower sales of its premium next-day delivery service, because its two-day service will usually arrive the following day anyway."

It must be true that people don't care whether their delivery arrive in one-day or two-day. That's why the company is concerned that people will choose not to use the premium service.

If people prefer one-day delivery to two-day, the company then won't have to worry about because the improvement won't affect the sales of its premium service.

Can anyone explain why B is not an assumption?

Looking carefully, "C" is talking about profit. It is essentially saying that the lost of sales in overnight deliveries will be too high to be offset by the saving in cost from new distribution system.

But the goal in the argument is to ensure that revenue won't go down. So the cost saving from new distribution system is not in the equation yet.

At least, this is what I think

My two cents' worth here:

These questions usually fall under what would be called "They have a plan" questions, and the questions always almost follow the same pattern.

Someone will propose a certain course of action (here as " intentionally delaying delivery of its two-day packages") and outlines a pretty specific aim of that course of action (here "encourage sales of its next-day service"). The right answer will almost always be directly related to the specific aim of the plan, which tells us that's the part of the question we should zoom in on.

Here, we're looking for an assumption - which can appear in the form of a linking connector, or a defending statement that indeed tells us that the customers will buy his premium 1-day service.

The author's line of reasoning is to drive 'traffic' or sales to the premium 1-day overnight delivery plan by holding things up on their 'normal' 2-day delivery plans, EVEN THOUGH internally they have developed the same synergistic capability (their distribution system) to deliver either within 1 or 2 days. Try to personalize this argument as if you were the owner of the business:

1. I'm going to hold things up for my customers on the 2-day deliveries, even though I can almost always definitely deliver within 2 days.
2. Since 2-day deliveries are on hold up, customers will turn to my 1-day delivery service.

Missing connect: What if the customers are not happy already in the first place that their goods are being held up? What if they switch at that point? Then my 2-day deliveries would NEVER have the chance to even work.

This whole argument about driving traffic from 1 plan to the other assumes that the customers will behave as he predicts them to be. But he's missing the point in that there is a potential possibility they would not even give him the opportunity to sell his 1-day premium delivery service.

Hence, we have Option A which appears in the form of a defending assumption which tells us that the above stated possibility will not happen.