This year, the total number of hotdogs sold was higher than total numb

Question

This year, the total number of hotdogs sold was higher than total number sold last year. However, the accountant for the Henry's chain claims that, when individual stands are considered, the number of hotdogs sold decreased at every stand that was in operation this year and last year. The accountant believes that evidence points to a weakening in demand for Henry's Hotdogs.

Based on the evidence, which of the following must be true?

A. Henry's Hotdog opened at least one new hotdog stand in the past year.
B. Fewer people are eating hotdogs this year.
C. In some markets, Henry's Hotdogs faces serious competition from other hotdogs vendors.
D. Henry's Hotdogs has changed its prices over the past two years.
E. This years, Henry's Hotdogs is capturing smaller portion of the market share for fast food than last year.

Source: 800score

ankit1607 · Answer

A would be correct if it was stated as -

Henry's hotdog opened atleast one new stand this year..... instead of past year, which refers to year had lesser number of sales

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  ankit1607 . The answer choice is fine as written:  in the past year  could refer to any time from 365 days ago (or thereabouts) to the present. As long as some new Henry's Hotdog had opened and sold hotdogs  within  the past year (maybe even today), the apparent discrepancy between the higher number of hot dogs sold  last year  and the decreased number of hotdogs sold  at every stand that was in operation this year and last year  would be resolved. I think your interpretation of the timeline is a little too strict, although I understand how you could have arrived at such a conclusion.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

- Andrew

ankit1607 · Answer

Thank You for your reply. After knowing correct answer, answer choice seems to be correct but I would still prefer 'this year'. As, same is used in Choice B s well.
I want to know if Choice A would appear as is, if had put in real GMAT or GMAT usually avoids such possible misinterpreted Choices?
I am new to CR so may be this sounds silly to you but Please bear with me here.

-Ankit

AndrewN · Answer

Hello, Ankit. No, your question is not silly at all. I know what you mean about ambiguity of meaning, a feature that is a hallmark of incorrect answers in SC, for example. That is fine to prefer the phrasing of one choice over another, but it is really the content that steers one answer into a correct path and another into one that is off-course. I would like to say that official GMAT™ questions always avoid such issues of potential misinterpretation, but sometimes that is not so. You have to be careful in weighing up the pros and cons, in terms of holistic meaning, of each answer choice in CR and RC before committing to something, without getting caught up too much in the way the same idea may be conveyed. In choice (B), for instance, even ignoring the temporal part, you have  fewer people are eating hotdogs , and no information from the passage allows you to make such a conclusion about  the number of people  who may be eating hotdogs altogether--notice that Henry's is not even mentioned specifically. In your first sweep of the answer choices, look for obvious outliers to pick off, then go back through whatever remains and see if you can determine which answer is easier to argue against. Get rid of that one and choose the other.

I hope that helps. Keep the questions coming if you have them. That is what GMAT Club is all about.

- Andrew

jim441 · Answer

The first line of argument should be "This year, the total number of hotdogs sold by henry's was higher than total number sold last year." Because if it's not mentioned then E could also be correct.

So Lets say the total number of hotdogs sold last year = 100
Total number of hodogs sold this year = 200

Henry sold last year = 50
henry sold this year = 40 (since at every store, there was a decrease in number of hotdogs sold)

so henry's share (last year) = 50/100 = 50%
Henry's share (this year) = 40/200 = 20%

Also A could be invalidated by considering the case of new chain in town.

please share your insight. Is there any alternate explanation?

thr3at · Answer

"However" in the Stimulus states that Henery's overeall sales did went up.

acrd19 · Answer

This year, the total number of hotdogs sold was higher than total number sold last year.

It's not mentioned if it is at an industry level or just for henry's

If only for henry's -> A seems fine
At industry level -> C seems more appropriate

This year, the total number of hotdogs sold was higher than total numb

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This year, the total number of hotdogs sold was higher than total numb

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