Health club membership has increased dramatically over the

Question

Health club membership has increased dramatically over the last five years. In order to take advantage of this increase, Fitness Express plans to open more of the same types of classes available during the week, while continuing its already very extensive advertising in newspapers and on the radio.

Which of the following, if true, provides most support for the view that Fitness Express cannot increase membership to its gyms by adopting the plan outlined above?
(A)Although it fills all of the classes it opens, Fitness Express's share of all health club memberships has declined over the last five years.
(B)Fitness Express' number of classes offered to their clients has declined slightly over the last year.
(C)Advertising has made the name of Fitness Express widely known, but few customers know that Fitness Express health clubs also off acupuncture and shiatsu treatments.
(D)Fitness Express's health clubs is one of three clubs that have together accounted for 88% of health club memberships.
(E)Despite a slight decline in membership price, sales of Fitness Express memberships have fallen in the last five years.

blueseas · Answer

IMO E

argument: overall health care membership has increased in the last five years .
fitness express wants to open more classes in order to capture more membership.
fitness express is assuming increase in membership of health club means this increase will also benefit FITNESS EXPRESS.
we have to wesken this conclusion.

(A)Although it fills all of the classes it opens, Fitness Express's share of all health club memberships has declined over the last five years.(incorrect as it tells classes are filled so indirectly its strngthening the argument.)
(B)Fitness Express' number of classes offered to their clients has declined slightly over the last year.(incorrect because decrease in number of classes doesnt tell anything about capturing of membership)
(C)Advertising has made the name of Fitness Express widely known, but few customers know that Fitness Express health clubs also off acupuncture and shiatsu treatments.(incorrect..actually it strengthens....as few more people who are interested in acupuncture and shiatsu treatments may come and may become member.)
(D)Fitness Express's health clubs is one of three clubs that have together accounted for 88% of health club memberships.(combine share of three clubs doesnt say anything about fitness express specifically....may be fitness express may have very large share and viceversa.)==>incorrect
(E)Despite a slight decline in membership price, sales of Fitness Express memberships have fallen in the last five years.(correct)==>as it tells together with decreased membership price sales of fitness express membership has decreased in the last five years while overall health care membership has increased during same period)

waiting for OA

Zarrolou · Answer

We have to prove that, despite the fact that membership has increased dramatically over the last five years, Fitness Express's plan will not be successful.

E tells us the despite a slight decline in price,memberships sales have fallen. This is the correct answer as it states that even in a good and health market, the company has not been able to increase its sales; so we can predict that will not be able to increase membership to its gyms.

This is a stolen question from GmatPrep, here is the original

sales-of-telephones-have-increased-dramatically-over-the-136352.html

souvik101990 · Answer

the key is the words  "in order to take advantage of this increase" . these words show the assumptions that are being made.
in particular, the passage assumes that an overall increase in telephone sales, industry-wide, will automatically translate into an increase in sales for Fitness Express.

choice (e) severs this connection completely - it showed that Fitness' sales dropped as the industry-wide sales increased sharply - and so utterly destroys this assumed connection.

janxavier · Answer

Aren't the 1st line of the CR and option (E) contradicting each other ?

mvictor · Answer

I chose B, and I was struggling to decide whether B or E is the correct answer. For me, B is a more strong one, because if the number of classes has slightly decreased, while the number of new members has dramatically increased, it might mean only one thing - people do not take those classes, and the argument, which is constructed in such a way that if more classes are available, more people will join the club, is shattered.

mikemcgarry / @e-gmat - I would be thankful if someone could help with the analysis of this argument.

mikemcgarry  / @e-gmat - I would be thankful if someone could help with the analysis of this argument.

dominicraj · Answer

Hi mvictor,

I am no expert and would love to see experts answer as well but I chose E and here are my 2 cents that I would like to share:

We need to find new evidence that weakens the argument.

Now per B, we are told that the number of classes has declined over the last year. Kindly note that nothing more is told and hence we can actually think that if the number of classes increases, a majority of it will be successful therefore actually strengthening the argument.

Now per E, despite a decline in the prices, the memberships have fallen in the last five years. Maybe there is some problem with the chain runs..we dont know. This shows that even if the fitness chain decides to increase its chain, there is no guarantee that people will want to take it..

VerbalBot · Answer

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Health club membership has increased dramatically over the

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