Retail Store Owner: According to the annual sales report, of the four

Question

Retail Store Owner: According to the annual sales report, of the four sections in our downtown supermarket, the general grocery section, which usually contributes at least 70 percent of the supermarket’s profits, has performed unusually badly this year. However, thankfully, the statistics of bakery and dairy sections’ performance—they have together contributed 34 percent of the supermarket’s overall profits, up from 19 percent last year—suggest that more bakery and dairy items must have been sold this year than last year.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously casts doubt on the owner’s conclusion?

A. This year, the supermarket's overall sales and profits came down by sixty percent, and the contribution of the general grocery section to the overall profits was 65 percent

B. The fourth section’s contribution to the supermarket’s profits has been just about 29 percent this year.

C. Based on the statistics pertinent to just three of the four sections of the supermarket, it is impossible to determine whether two of the sections have done better.

D. The supermarket is in a locality where the consumption of bakery and dairy products is lower than in most other localities in the region.

E. As a rule, in supermarkets, the general grocery section contributes most to their profits

johanzac · Answer

Official Explanation  
* Fact 1: According to the annual sales report, the general grocery section, which contributes 70% of the supermarket’s profits, has performed unusually bad this year.
* Fact 2 (Counter-Premise): Bakery and dairy section has contributed 34% to the profits of this year, up from 19% last year.
* Conclusion: More Bakery and dairy items must have been sold this year than last year.

What cases might not have been considered?
* Missing Link: What if total supermarket profits significantly decreased this year while bakery and dairy items did not have sales significantly lower than that of last year?
* In that case, the high percentage contribution to profits by bakery and dairy section can also be explained by a significant reduction of denominator without a significant decrease in numerator.
* Furthermore, if the supermarkets’ overall profits reduced significantly with most sections having suffered, the bakery and dairy section might not even have had to sell more items than it did last year.
* A similar or even a slight decrease in sales volume of bakery and dairy section might have bumped up its profit contribution percentage in case the overall profits plummeted.

A.This year, the supermarket's overall sales and profits came down by sixty percent, and the contribution of the general grocery section to the overall profits was 65 percent
 Correct Option  
Option A Feedback: 
This is as per our Pre-thinking. This weakens the conclusion. Correct choice.

B.The fourth section’s contribution to the supermarket’s profits has been just about 29 percent this year. 
Option B Feedback:
That doesn’t explain whether bakery and dairy section saw more sales this year than last year. Thus, this is a distortion.

C.Based on the statistics pertinent to just three of the four sections of the supermarket, it is impossible to determine whether two of the sections have done better. 
Option C Feedback:
This states a general fact that has no bearing on whether the bakery section did better than it did last year. This is a distortion.

D. The supermarket is in a locality where the consumption of bakery and dairy products is lower than in most other localities in the region. 
Option D Feedback: 
The locality and its preferences doesn’t impact the conclusion, drawn on the basis of sales numbers, drawn by the store owner. Thus, this is out of scope.

E. As a rule, in supermarkets, the general grocery section contributes most to their profits 
Option E Feedback: 
However, this general phenomenon did not occur this year. This information has no relevance to determining whether the bakery and dairy section performed better this year than last. This is a distortion.

johanzac · Answer

If the role of a weakener is to prove that the conclusion cannot be drawn from the premise given. Isnt option “C.Based on the statistics pertinent to just three of the four sections of the supermarket, it is impossible to determine whether two of the sections have done better” doing that? Just that it is not bringing an additional evidence, instead saying that mathematically its not possible to deduce so.

Please share your thoughts
Thank you

Please share your thoughts
Thank you

RishS94 · Answer

If one of % figure has reduced then it impacts other values as well

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

This is a pretty silly question--what's the source?

First, let's acknowledge that of course, if bakery sales are a larger % of a much smaller pie (no pun intended), then yes, we have a colossal weakener. It doesn't seem very likely that people bought more this year. That's a very basic error! But how weird is it to have an argument from the actual store owner, based on actual sales report, that doesn't take this into account? I know our job is just to weaken the argument and not worry about how likely someone is to make the argument in the first place, but it's a very odd setup.

Second, the OE relies on the unclear term "distortion." Apparently, most of the wrong answers are "distortions," but what on earth does that mean on a weaken question? We're looking for something that, if true, would make the conclusion seem less likely. The answers are all facts, so they can't be "distortions." The main problem with C is that it's not really clear what it's even saying. We're supposed to accept it as true, but what exactly is true? That percents don't give us hard numbers? It doesn't say that, and in any case, that isn't something we'd need an answer choice to tell us! A weakener should present new information, not just point out how the world works. In this case, its not clear what new information we're really getting, so C is really tough to evaluate.

Retail Store Owner: According to the annual sales report, of the four

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Retail Store Owner: According to the annual sales report, of the four

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