Trans World Entertainment Corporation, which owns the Record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains, announced
that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed. A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed
B. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor sales
C. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor sales
D. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its stores
E. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed
This topic is back in the reckoning after about a decade, jumping from 2007 to 2017, but still eluding the exact rationale for rejecting A and B.
1. As per the tenet of logic, there is no ambiguity as far as the reference of 'they ' is concerned. it does refer to the stores, since one cannot close sales, in the given context. Closing sales means clinching the deal in business parlance. What does 'its' refer to? We must appreciate that Record Town and Saturday Matinee is a brand and not a corporate. Therefore, 'its' does undoubtedly refer to the TWE.
2. The actual reason why A is incorrect is that, in reported speech, when the main clause is in past tense, one has to report the relative clause also in the same vein. 'They would be closed" is the correct diction.
3. In B also the pronouns "it" and 'its' consistently refer to the owning company the TWE. However, omitting the relative clause - connector 'that' is a constructional error in addition to the shift of tense from past to present. The pronoun' which' refers to the one -fourth of the company's stores and these one- fourth number of stores are said to be performing poorly at the market. It may not logically refer to the stores, then it will mean that all the outlets fared poorly; but it is not the intent herein.
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