A negative review of a popular restaurant claimed that the

Question

A negative review of a popular restaurant claimed that the wait staff was rude and the food was overpriced. This review caused sales to drop precipitously which, in turn, forced the original owners to sell the business. The new owners revised the menu and dismissed most of the wait staff. After three months, however, sales had improved by less than 1%.

Which of the following, if true, forms the best basis for at least a partial explanation of why sales at the restaurant have not improved?

* The new owners could not determine who were the rudest members of the wait staff.
 * New menu items offered by the new owners are now more affordable.
 * The new owners neglected to advertise the fact that the restaurant is now under new management.
 * The new owners began managing the restaurant during the summer, when sales are unusually high.
 * Another restaurant with similarly-priced menu items opened across the street.

jatinrai · Answer

Yes the answer is C. The people still don't know that the improvements have taken place.

lackofwittyname · Answer

I agree, C makes sense, but is not D also equally valid?

If they began managing the restaurant at a time when the sales are at their peak, it makes sense that the sales would not increase over the next few months.

Archit143 · Answer

I think A , C and E are very close to each other.
Can anyone help me with this one

Archit

isbaspirant · Answer

What is wrong with A?It may be that management coud not identify the rude staff and fired unnecessarily! ps help in this!

doe007 · Answer

The review raised two issues: (1) Rude wait staff, and (2) Overpriced food.
Actions by new management: (1) Dismiss of majority of staff (this might have addressed rude staff), and (2) revision of menu (we do not know what was the revision: food price might have reduced very little or moderately or a lot - who knows!)

A) This statement addresses possibility of not managing one issue (but we do not know for sure whether all the rude waiters were dismissed). No information on handling other issue.
B) Weakens the argument.
C) People's negative perception could have changed if they knew about the change of management and the actions taken by the new management. As customers did not become aware of the management change, the sales didn't improve much.  Correct .
D) This statement weakens the argument. If the sales are unusually high when the management change happened, the restaurant's sales would have increased as well.
E) This statement addresses food pricing moderately, but we do not know if the price of the other restaurant is on the higher side. If the food price of the new restaurant is on the higher side, food price of the restaurant of our concern is also on the higher side. So, similar pricing is not giving any edge to the restaurant of our concern. Also, no information provided on handling other issue.

Correct answer is C.

Archit143 · Answer

Check the highlighted portion.
I do not think that there is any reason to think about the price to be higher side as it is clearly stated the price of items in the new restaurant were same to that of the of the older one.

Hence the explanation of E seems completely flawed.

Archit

mohnish104 · Answer

the question clearly asks for a partial reason and A seems to fit in the groove. C on the other hand seems like a major reason.

ankurgupta03 · Answer

The question asks for at least a partial explanation, means that full explanation will also do

The main reason for the restaurant not doing good was the review about the bad staff, until people know that the staff and management has been changed, how would they come back to the restaurant? Makes sense ... ?

mohnish104 · Answer

i guess i missed the word atleast. C clearly made more sense but the word partial confused me.

CantDropThisTime · Answer

Hi

I think the answer is "A" not "C".

What if the owner advertise that that the restaurant is under new management, which attract people who found that the rude staff is still there. This will give send bad signal. and the restaurant will loose more customers.

In case of "A", if the owner was able to dismiss the rudest member of the staff, people who are still coming to the restaurant will see that the staffs are not rude anymore. This will send good signal and this along with revised menu will attract more customers.

Note:   The question stem mention singular word "staff" which meas there is only 1 staff who is rude, and he must go out if the restaurant has to attract customers.

abdullahmangi · Answer

It is always difficult on how to respond to negative restaurant reviews. But I would say 
 Overpriced food

As we humans, it's very easy to get obsessed with the price of things. If you've ever seen an item on sale and compared it to an item that isn't on sale, chances are good that the one on sale will seem just a little bit cheaper. It's not uncommon for restaurants or other retail establishments to charge more for certain items because they know consumers will think "it must be really high quality if it costs so much". This sometimes leads people into thinking "even though I don't think this is any better than that cheaper place. I should take my business there," which may become what some people call "the cheapskate trap". There are studies showing that our brains love when something only needs to be justified, rather than proven.

To put this study into context for the question above, many people are likely to see the price and think something like "I heard the food is bad here, so I'll go somewhere else." ("price justification") The new owners' price should seem cheap in comparison. If it doesn't seem cheaper enough to change their mind, then it won't have an effect on sales because the customers already thought that something else was better.

A negative review of a popular restaurant claimed that the

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