Two days before the Thanksgiving, Amazon announced huge discounts on

Question

Two days before the Thanksgiving, Amazon announced huge discounts on many products sold on its platform for the purchases to be made on Thanksgiving. On that day, orders worth $500mn were placed. Six days before Christmas, Amazon announced the same discounts on the same products sold on its platform for the purchases to be made on Christmas. On that day, orders worth $2bn were placed. Clearly, the average buyer on Amazon needs more than three days to make a purchase decision.

Which of the following questions should be answered before accepting the argument above as valid?

A. What was the mean value of all purchases made on Thanksgiving

B. What was the mean value of all purchases made on Christmas

C. What percentage of the buyers received a bonus from their respective employers on Christmas

D. How does the sales volume of this Thanksgiving compare to the last year's

E. Both A and B

Prasadgmac · Answer

In my opinion, the answer is E.

If the statement 'the average buyer on Amazon needs more than three days to make a purchase decision.' has to be true, then we need to know the mean value of the purchase made on those two days.

Option D and E are introducing new information or non relevant information on table, so rejected.

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Dark_Horse · Answer

I don't like this question. How does knowing the mean price of purchase determine that the average buyer needs more than 3 days to make purchase decisions.

The argument has an assumption both the festivals are equal in stature. My question would be to clarify this assumption. Only thing apart from the total sales values is the different festivals and that needs to be investigated to arrive at the conclusion that the author is gunning for.

Experts your comments?

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sunny91 · Answer

hi Experts, please explain that how the mean values will help to answer the question?

Thakurdas · Answer

The only difference between the two cases described in the argument (sale volume reached on Thanksgiving and sale volume reached on Christmas) is that the customers had more time to think of what to buy or whether to buy at all in case of the Christmas sale. The argument maker has considered that to be the cause of difference in the sale volumes. Before accepting A sa the cause of B, we must check if B could have been caused by any other factor (say C). Options A and B both refer to a possible alternative cause. People make up their mid faster if the purchase value is lower. When the purchase value is lower, people may make the decision in a shorter time.

PriyankaPalit7 · Answer

Can any of you please explain why option E is relevant, ie, why the mean value of purchases is important?

Why is option C incorrect? If a huge percentage of buyers received a bonus on Christmas, the increase in Christmas sales could be attributed to the anticipation of bonus and hence the argument that the average buyer needs more than 3 days could be invalidated.

Thakurdas · Answer

To compare two situations, you need data on both. If Christmas bonus is the reason for greater sale, where does the argument say nobody got bonus of Thanksgiving?

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priyanka2310 · Answer

I think the answer is E because

Mean values will give Total Amount/ Total Count of People. There may be a case like this- more number of people buying less value items during Thanksgiving offer and less number of people buying value items of more cost during Christmas offer. In this case the conclusion will fail.

DrVanNostrand · Answer

I think that Option E is correct as:

If the same buyers are buying the products on Thanksgiving and Christmas, although, involving different thinking durations, there has to be some difference and that difference can be the mean amount.

C. What percentage of the buyers received a bonus from their respective employers on Christmas -  This is incorrect because we have no clue if the people received any form of bonus on Thanksgiving as well. Also, again the purchase pattern will boil down to mean purchases

Vtrilla1991 · Answer

This can't be a GMAT question - can it?
Never have I seen a verbal question like this.

kashishDhir · Answer

How does mean value help in determining the the validity of the argument?

AndrewN · Answer

Hello, everyone,  Vtrilla1991  and  kashishDhir  in particular. First off, this is  not  a question that you would see on the GMAT™, so if you want to have fun with it, that is fine, but you should not think of it as preparing for the test. An answer such as (E) might appear on the Quant section, but not in a Verbal CR (or SC) question in particular.

That said, I have read through the community dialogue, and I remain unconvinced that gaining insight into  the mean value of all purchases  on both holidays would necessarily allow us get behind the argument. Since Amazon is the focus of the passage, we could put forth the notion that Jeff Bezos decided to go on a shopping spree ahead of either holiday and spent all that money himself—he could certainly afford to do so—whether on one purchase or many. Now, if Jeff Bezos was the sole shopper on either day, what good would this  mean value  knowledge serve us? Furthermore, if the customer is the same person for both periods, then what meaningful conclusion can we really draw at all? By extension, we could theoretically say that the same  group  of Amazon customers shopped during both periods and just happened to have spent a little more money in December. There are too many loopholes for us to close to qualify the argument presented.

Do not get me wrong: writing questions is hard. (I would know: I supplied the Verbal questions for the  12 Days of Christmas Competition  last December.) That is why GMAC™ spends thousands of dollars per question to rigorously test for validity  before the question ever makes it to the exam center .

Have fun with this one, but stick to official questions as much as possible to prepare for the GMAT™. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

VerbalBot · Answer

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Two days before the Thanksgiving, Amazon announced huge discounts on

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