A successful coffee stand that serves the workers in a large office bu

Question

A successful coffee stand that serves the workers in a large office building plans to increase its profits by adding oatmeal—a hot cereal popular among the workers—to its menu. The manager says that oatmeal is “the ultimate convenience food” because it can be served by the cup, as coffee is; further, offering oatmeal will enable the stand to get into the breakfast business without making a large investment, because it does not require elaborate cooking equipment.

Which of the following would, if true, most strengthen the likelihood that the manager's plan will achieve its goal?

A. Some of the office building's businesses have recently begun providing free coffee to their employees.
B. The ingredients needed to make oatmeal are inexpensive and do not spoil easily the way many fresh breakfast foods typically sold at coffee stands do.
C. In order to offer more flexible schedules to their workers, several businesses in the office building will soon be expanding their hours.
D. Supermarket sales of oatmeal and other cereals slowed this year following large gains last year.
E. Oatmeal manufacturers have recently reduced their oatmeal offerings, which had included oatmeal in microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats.

CR48541.01
OG2020 NEW QUESTION

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

Plan: Increase profit by adding oatmeal

Oatmeal is popular among workers
Oatmeal is “the ultimate convenience food” because it can be served by the cup
Oatmeal does not require elaborate cooking equipment so no large investment needed

Hence, it seems likely that "profit" will increase because investment is less while it is popular. We need to make our plan more likely to be successful:

A. Some of the office building's businesses have recently begun providing free coffee to their employees.

This is bad news for coffee stand business. If businesses provide free coffee, fewer people will visit the stand.

B. The ingredients needed to make oatmeal are inexpensive and do not spoil easily the way many fresh breakfast foods typically sold at coffee stands do.

So costs are low and wastage may be low too. This does show that our profits may increase. It is good for our plan. Hence this is the answer.

C. In order to offer more flexible schedules to their workers, several businesses in the office building will soon be expanding their hours.

Flexible schedule means that some people might come in early morning and leave early evening while other may come in afternoon and leave at night etc. So people will be spread out over more hrs, say 18 hrs. Is this good news for our stand, we don't know. Fewer people may come in during breakfast time and if we serve oatmeal only during breakfast, we may not get enough business. On the other hand, more people may come earlier than usual and hence may want breakfast in office so we may get a lot of business. On the whole, how this will impact our coffee stand depends on how the plan is implemented and how people react to expanded hours.

D. Supermarket sales of oatmeal and other cereals slowed this year following large gains last year.

Doesn't impact us.

E. Oatmeal manufacturers have recently reduced their oatmeal offerings, which had included oatmeal in microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats.

Did many people use microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats? We don't know. So we can't say whether it spells good news for our stand.

Answer (B)

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

The argument is that oatmeal is a good choice because people like it and it will allow entry into the 'breakfast business' with little cost (because it doesn't need equipment).
Since there are many possible ways to strengthen this argument (as it has two distinct lines of reasoning -- 'people like oatmeal' and 'easy to enter the business') we'll go to the answers instead of trying to infer our own. This is an Alternative approach.

A. what does this have to do with oatmeal?
B. this directly strengthens that 'oatmeal is a good business choice'. Good option, let's check the others.
C. nothing to do with oatmeal...
D. this is a bit of a weakener as it suggests that 'people don't want / have enough oatmeal'. At best, it is neutral w.r.t to potential profits (i.e. it does not affect the manager's chance of success)
E. similarly to (D), this is between a weakener to irrelevant: reducing the 'offerings' does not mean the workers will notice -- what if the oatmeal was being overproduced beforehand? What if the types of oatmeal workers like are still being produced? Even if the reduction is 'serious' then all that would mean is that the stall would have a harder time purchasing the relevant ingredients to sell oatmeal.

(B) is our answer.

rocking1994abhi · Answer

I am not able to understand why is E not the correct answer. As per this option choice, manufacturers have reduced the oatmeal offerings and we also know from the passage that oatmeal is popular among workers. Therefore, workers should visit the stand for having oatmeals as they have limited options in the market now. In my opinion, this is a strengthener.

NandishSS · Answer

HI  rocking1994abhi ,

E.  Oatmeal manufacturers have recently reduced their oatmeal offerings , which had included oatmeal in microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats.

If Oatmeal manufacturers have recently reduced their oatmeal offerings then how do managers increase their profits by adding oatmeal?

So it weakens the argument.

Manat · Answer

Can someone please provide a strong reason to eliminate E?

GMATNinja ,  gmat1393 ,  GMATNinjaTwo ,  nightblade354

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

Hey  Manat  and  rocking1994abhi

I edited the above explanation to make it more clear.

In particular, (E) is not a strengthener. The claim that 'manufacturers reduced offerings' does not mean that the workers will feel a deficit of oatmeal sources -- what if the oatmeal was being overproduced beforehand (and so even after reduction there is still plenty on the shelves)? What if the 'reduced offerings' do not include the types of oatmeal workers like to eat? There is no way to say how this reduction will affect the workers and therefore (E) does not strengthen the claim that 'workers will buy oatmeal from the stall'. It certainly doesn't strengthen the claim that 'it is easy to enter the business' (if anything, it weakens it).

In any case, (E) is not our answer.

Debashis Roy · Answer

GMATNinja   VeritasKarishma   DavidTutorexamPAL

Since the argument is about profit shouldn't we be more concerned about the saleability of the breakfast ?

If people already have breakfast before coming to office then the plan wont work.Choice C says that the business hours will be extended so doesn't it provide the scope that more people might have breakfast at office because of their work hours...So in a sense it strengthens?

Pl clarify...
Thanks

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

In a sense, yes. But it is far too indirect to be a good answer, especially when compared with the much more straightforward (B). Notice how many assumptions you had to make to explain why (C) is a strengthener (Why would longer hours mean more breakfast at the office? Are you suggesting that people will arrive earlier, or won't have energy to eat at home?). Notice also that the majority of the argument is devoted to two other lines of reasoning, and these should be your first pick for what needs to be justified.
If you find yourself having to invent a model or add assumptions to justify an answer choice, your 'danger' buttons should be triggered...

Verbal33 · Answer

The conclusion is a coffee stand plans to increase its profits by adding oatmeal. and the reason is also provided in the following argument i.e. no need of large investment and no cooking equipment is needed.

We can assume that the answer must be something related to the above conclusion. It will reduce the gap between premise and conclusion. So we can see in the answer options which will support oatmeal will not have huge investment or no equipment will be used or how it will increase profits.

A. Free coffee to the employees doesnt have any effect on increasing profits by oatmeal.
B. inexpensive and dont have wastage. This says that there is not expenses also not wastage so no loss and this will be profitable.
C. expanding office hrs. This option is not talking about anything related to oatmeal.
D. Supermarket sales have reduced. no effect on sale of oatmeal at coffee shop or even on profits.
E. Manufacturers have reduced offerings, no effect on coffee stand offerings. It does say about convenient cereal bars but it does not have any effect on coffee shops sales or profits.

ArtVandaley · Answer

May be I am overthinking, or this is not the kind of questions I am comfortable at, but I see many answer choices that can strengthen the arguement. OR none that can say, it will incrase profits.

For Example,
A says that some businesses have started giving free coffee. Probably the extra offerings by the coffee stand can bring in those people to the stand rather than having free coffee alone.

B says that the ingredients are inexpensive. But it doesnt say that whether I will increase profits(Profit=revenue-cost) and inexpensive material is just one aspect of it. Not happy with the answer choice. Besides, lower cost is already established in the arguement.

C says that the hours are flexible. It is not relavant to profit at all.

D and E are irrelevant at best.

Can someone justify how B is "The" answer here?

gmatdordie · Answer

Conclusion: coffed stand plan to increase business by adding oatmeal in breakfast
Correct OA:C
A. Some of the office building's businesses have recently begun providing free coffee to their employees. -out of scope
B. The ingredients needed to make oatmeal are inexpensive and do not spoil easily the way many fresh breakfast foods typically sold at coffee stands do. correct-oa-strengthes conclusion
C. In order to offer more flexible schedules to their workers, several businesses in the office building will soon be expanding their hours. -irrelevant to arhument
D. Supermarket sales of oatmeal and other cereals slowed this year following large gains last year. -weakening conclusion
E. Oatmeal manufacturers have recently reduced their oatmeal offerings, which had included oatmeal in microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats. -weakening conclusion

NL15 · Answer

This is a  GOAL/PLAN Question.

A successful coffee stand that serves the workers in a large office building  plans to increase its profits  by adding oatmeal—a hot cereal popular among the workers—to its menu. The manager says that oatmeal is “the ultimate convenience food” because it can be served by the cup, as coffee is; further, offering oatmeal will enable the stand to  get into the breakfast business without making a large investment , because it does not require elaborate cooking equipment.

Manager's Reasoning:
Cost is very less, so, if the sale will be more -- profit will be there.

Which of the following would, if true, most  strengthen  the likelihood that the manager's plan will achieve its goal?

A. Some of the office building's businesses have recently begun providing free coffee to their employees. -->  So, in that case the coffee business would go down, but nothing can be said about breakfast business. -- Eliminate

B. The ingredients needed to make oatmeal are inexpensive and do not spoil easily the way many fresh breakfast foods typically sold at coffee stands do. -->  This means cost is still lower. - Hold on

C. In order to offer more flexible schedules to their workers, several businesses in the office building will soon be expanding their hours. -->  Out of Scope

D. Supermarket sales of oatmeal and other cereals slowed this year following large gains last year. -->  This means sale of raw food products went down, but nothing is known about the cooked breakfast, so we can't say whether the plan will be successful - Eliminate

E. Oatmeal manufacturers have recently reduced their oatmeal offerings, which had included oatmeal in microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats. -->  No tie to the conclusion - Can't say about the success of the plan.

Correct Answer (B)

RashedVai · Answer

Another way to think about it is:

The argument says that "no large investment or no equipment is needed"

This ^^ means the fixed costs are irrelevant.

That makes me think:
"what about the variable costs?"
If the variable cost is also negligible then the plan will more likely to achieve it's goal.

Answer choice (c), says "ingredients are inexpensive" in other words- the variable costs are also negligible!

We are done.
__

minustark 
Is my thinking okay here?

Posted from my mobile device

celan99 · Answer

A successful coffee stand that serves the workers in a large office building plans to increase its profits by adding oatmeal—a hot cereal popular among the workers—to its menu. The manager says that oatmeal is “the ultimate convenience food” because it can be served by the cup, as coffee is; further, offering oatmeal will enable the stand to get into the breakfast business without making a large investment, because it does not require elaborate cooking equipment.

P : oatmeal can be served by the cup + does not need large investment.
C : coffee stand is planning to increase its profit by adding oatmeal

In order to strengthen, we need to support the premise. Any information stating that indeed in can be served by the cup and people actually enjoy oatmeal in such form, or information stating that it does not need large investment will help.

Which of the following would, if true, most strengthen the likelihood that the manager's plan will achieve its goal?

A. Some of the office building's businesses have recently begun providing free coffee to their employees.
-> Irrelevant. current topic is about oatmeal not coffee anymore.

B. The ingredients needed to make oatmeal are inexpensive and do not spoil easily the way many fresh breakfast foods typically sold at coffee stands do.
-> Correct, this option supports that fact that oatmeal does not need many investment.

C. In order to offer more flexible schedules to their workers, several businesses in the office building will soon be expanding their hours.
-> Irrelevant. This option gives us little information in determining whether selling oatmeal will be profitable or not.

D. Supermarket sales of oatmeal and other cereals slowed this year following large gains last year.
-> Irrelevant. It is difficult to find linkage between supermarket sales of oatmeal with this argument. We can not 100% be sure that since supermarket sales slowed, selling oatmeal in coffee stand will not be succesful.

E. Oatmeal manufacturers have recently reduced their oatmeal offerings, which had included oatmeal in microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats.
-> Irrelevant. This can be interpreted in various ways. Suppose that those manufacturers have reduced because of lack of supply or maybe have reduced because of over supply in the end-product market. We do not know.

Taulark1 · Answer

I get that the answer is strengthening , but isn't this ('less expensive' info already in the stimulus). If so, then strengthen answer choices should always bring in new information to support the stimulus right ?

sriharsha4444 · Answer

A. Some of the office building's businesses have recently begun providing free coffee to their employees.

potentially demand will go down or may be not (because of the quantifier some) - Weakener / No impact

B. The ingredients needed to make oatmeal are inexpensive and do not spoil easily the way many fresh breakfast foods typically sold at coffee stands do.

other making costs will be less -> strengthener

C. In order to offer more flexible schedules to their workers, several businesses in the office building will soon be expanding their hours.

- expanded timings -> same number of employees as earlier, same demand as earlier. Assuming demand will increase because of this is neither what option said nor common sensical to make that assumption (we don't know if coffee stand expanded their hours).

D. Supermarket sales of oatmeal and other cereals slowed this year following large gains last year.

- no impact. following large gains last year, slowed a bit this year -> doesn't indicate demand went up or down.

E. Oatmeal manufacturers have recently reduced their oatmeal offerings, which had included oatmeal in microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats.

- neither the option says this means more demand not it is common sensical to assume that reduced overall convenient offerings means more demand for coffee stand's convenient option because we don't know in first place whether the same people are even using those convenient options from manufacturers.

abhola · Answer

Hi All,

Even though the difficulty of this question is low, one can learn plenty of concepts from this.

Understand the passage:

The passage presents a plan of the manager of a successful coffee stand, and the question asks us to select an option that further reinforces the success of the plan.

Now to be able to find the strengthener, let us understand the reasoning.

Conclusion (PLAN)  - Let us venture into the oatmeal business to increase the current profits (profits that are earned only by selling coffee as of now).

The reasoning behind the success of the plan, by the manager:

Oatmeal is quite popular among the workers
Oatmeal is convenient to serve (using just a cup)
Oatmeal does not require significant investment to start with because it uses low-cost equipment to prepare

Now that we understand the argument, let us understand how the plan can fail ( failure means not be able to make profits despite all the above advantages ):

Raw material to make oats is very expensive.
Storing cooked oatmeal requires equipment which could be very expensive.

The strategy here should be to eliminate any potential weakeners.

Now analyze the answer choices:

Choice A: if anything, this choice spells bad news for the coffee stand. Since selling coffee is the primary business as of now, if offices start to provide free coffee then why would people visit the coffee stand? This choice at best is a weakener.

Choice B: Correct. Notice that we did not have any info on the cost of RAW materials to prepare the oatmeal. The author only told us that investment will be low because the equipment required to make oatmeal is inexpensive. This choice address another aspect that could eat into profits.

Choice C: We don't know how flexible work hours are gonna impact the business. Let us test the extremes. If people start coming in late, they might want to eat their breakfast at home. Some of you may argue that people can eat oatmeal any other time of the day. Right. But there are so many assumptions we have to make while selecting this answer choice and we already have a very straightforward choice i.e., choice B.

Choice D: Cannot make predictions on what will happen now.

Choice E: this choice could be an irrelevant one or a weakener. At very best, this choice tells me that oatmeal sales are declining despite its convenience, which is one of the features the manager added into his reasoning.

Hope the above solution helps!

ArnauG · Answer

The manager of a successful coffee stand plans to increase profits by adding oatmeal to the menu, citing its convenience and low investment requirement. The question asks us to identify the option that would most strengthen the likelihood of the manager's plan achieving its goal.

Option A states that some businesses in the office building have recently started providing free coffee to their employees. This information is not directly related to the addition of oatmeal to the menu and does not strengthen the likelihood of the manager's plan succeeding.

Option B indicates that the ingredients needed to make oatmeal are inexpensive and do not spoil easily compared to other fresh breakfast foods typically sold at coffee stands. This information supports the manager's claim that oatmeal is a convenient option with low costs, strengthening the likelihood of the plan's success. Option B is a relevant and strong choice.

Option C mentions that several businesses in the office building will soon be expanding their hours to offer more flexible schedules to their workers. This information is not directly related to the addition of oatmeal to the menu and does not provide significant support for the plan's success.

Option D discusses a slowdown in supermarket sales of oatmeal and other cereals following large gains in the previous year. This information does not directly relate to the coffee stand's plan to add oatmeal to its menu and does not strengthen the likelihood of its success.

Option E states that oatmeal manufacturers have reduced their oatmeal offerings, including microwaveable cups and convenient cereal bars made with rolled oats. This information suggests a reduction in competition and a potential increase in demand for oatmeal, which strengthens the likelihood of the manager's plan succeeding.

Among the options provided, option B strengthens the likelihood of the manager's plan achieving its goal by highlighting the inexpensive and non-perishable nature of oatmeal as compared to other breakfast foods.

KalleAbhi · Answer

Why (B) strengthens best:
 
 (B) directly confirms assumption (2): oatmeal ingredients are  inexpensive  and  do not spoil easily , so the stand can add oatmeal with low marginal cost and low waste risk. That makes it much more likely the new item will be profitable, so (B) strongly supports the manager’s plan.  
Why the others are weaker or irrelevant:
 
  (A)  Free coffee from employers could  reduce  demand for the stand’s coffee — ambiguous effect on oatmeal sales (could help or hurt). 
  (C)  Expanded business hours might increase overall demand, but doesn’t specifically show customers will buy oatmeal at the stand or that it’ll be profitable. 
  (D)  Slower supermarket oatmeal sales is about retail groceries, not single-serve workplace sales — ambiguous. 
  (E)  Fewer microwave/cup oatmeal products from manufacturers could mean less competition, but it also might mean less consumer interest in oatmeal convenience items; ambiguous and indirect.  
So (B) is the clearest, most direct support for the plan.

A successful coffee stand that serves the workers in a large office bu

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A successful coffee stand that serves the workers in a large office bu

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