For five years, the Souper restaurant chain has maintained rapid sales

Question

For five years, the Souper restaurant chain has maintained rapid sales growth in a certain city, primarily by opening new restaurants that draw their patrons away from other restaurants in their vicinity. Next year, Souper plans to open as many restaurants in the city as it did last year. Since these new restaurants will have an improved design, they will, clearly, do at least as well as the Souper restaurants newly opened last year.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. At times at which customers find Souper restaurants too crowded, they often patronize other restaurants nearby.

B. The Souper chain generally opens new restaurants in locations that are in the vicinity of a large number of other restaurants, and most of those restaurants serve soup, which is Souper's specialty.

C. Souper restaurants generally offer a much smaller variety of foods than many of the other restaurants in their vicinity.

D. Virtually all potential sites for new Souper restaurants in the city are located in the vicinity of existing Souper restaurants.

E. Souper restaurants have always offered meals that are somewhat less expensive than meals at restaurants that compete with Souper for patrons.

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Bunuel · Answer

Could you please provide a screenshot of the question? That would help. Thank you!

jhw9236 · Answer

Hi, Here is the screen shot for the question.

Bunuel · Answer

Thank you very much! Added the missing question (Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?) and fixed a typo.

Bunuel · Answer

For five years, the Souper restaurant chain has maintained rapid sales growth in a certain city, primarily by opening new restaurants that draw their patrons away from other restaurants in their vicinity. Next year, Souper plans to open as many restaurants in the city as it did last year. Since these new restaurants will have an improved design, they will, clearly, do at least as well as the Souper restaurants newly opened last year.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

The argument says: improved design + same expansion pattern = next year’s new restaurants will do at least as well as last year’s.

To weaken it, we need a reason why next year’s new locations will not bring in as much new business.

Choice D (Virtually all potential sites for new Souper restaurants in the city are located in the vicinity of existing Souper restaurants) does exactly that:

If almost all new sites are near existing Souper locations, then many customers of the new restaurants will be people who would otherwise eat at an existing Souper. That is cannibalization of Souper’s own sales, not stealing business from other chains as before. In that case, there is no good reason to expect next year’s new restaurants to match the performance of last year’s new ones, so the conclusion is weakened.

Why the others are incorrect:

A. At times at which customers find Souper restaurants too crowded, they often patronize other restaurants nearby.

So what? This just says that when Souper is too crowded, some customers go elsewhere. It does not show that new restaurants next year will perform worse than last year’s new ones.

B. The Souper chain generally opens new restaurants in locations that are in the vicinity of a large number of other restaurants, and most of those restaurants serve soup, which is Souper's specialty.

We already knew this! This again explains how Souper competes with nearby soup restaurants. It does not show that next year’s new restaurants will do worse than last year’s.

C. Souper restaurants generally offer a much smaller variety of foods than many of the other restaurants in their vicinity.

So what? That was also true for last year’s new restaurants, which were considered successful, so it does not show that next year’s will do worse.

E. Souper restaurants have always offered meals that are somewhat less expensive than meals at restaurants that compete with Souper for patrons.

So what? This was also true last year and gives no reason to expect weaker performance next year.

Answer: D.

For five years, the Souper restaurant chain has maintained rapid sales

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For five years, the Souper restaurant chain has maintained rapid sales

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