For the past few years, the per store sales of a drugstore chain have

Question

Data Insights (DI) Butler 2023-24       Click here for Details ]

For the past few years, the per store sales of a drugstore chain have been declining steadily. However, after a new management team took over last year, there have been promising signs of a recovery. Among the customers who responded to a survey asking them to rate, on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being highest), how satisfied they were with their shopping experience, 75% of them rated their experience a 4 or higher. This is in sharp contrast with last year, when only 35% of survey responders rated their satisfaction with their shopping experience a 4 or higher. The company’s marketing department is trumpeting this improved customer experience in its advertising campaign. Therefore, the drugstore company is poised to reverse the recent trend and increase its per store sales this year.

In the table, select  Support  for the statement that, if true, would provide the strongest support for the argument, and select  Undermine  for the statement that, if true, would undermine most seriously the argument. Make only two selections, one in each column.

Nikkz99 · Answer

Can anyone explain why doesn't  option C   undermine  compared to  option B  ?!

abed.michael · Answer

Hey,

Because the argument is that, the sales will increase in light of recent increased customer satisfaction. As the option B, correctly undermines the sales effect of the recent improvement its a better choice than C is.

Hope this helps!

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

The satisfaction of customers who shop at the company’s stores has improved, and the company is advertising this fact.  Choice (D)  provides evidence that these moves are having a positive effect, and suggests that they may result in higher sales: If people who do not shop at this company’s stores think better of the company now than they used to, then there is a possibility that they will be converted to customers of the company. There is no guarantee of this, of course, but there is no other statement that provides stronger support for the argument, so  choice (D)  is the correct answer in the first column.

Choice (A)  seems as though it might weaken the argument, but in fact it does not provide new meaningful information one way or the other: whether or not the previous management team was focused on customer satisfaction, the results are what matters.

Choice (C)  basically says that the survey results are statistically valid, but it does not give any further evidence that these results will or will not lead to the conclusion presented in the argument. (If, instead, the statement had said that the survey results are not statistically valid, then it would have been a good candidate for the statement that undermines the conclusion.)

Choice (E)  seems tempting, but is ultimately irrelevant: The conclusion says that the company will increase its per store sales, not its overall sales. You have no information on which to judge how the new stores will affect the company’s per store sales. Finally,  choice (B)  is the one that undermines the argument.

The correct answer is (D).

The conclusion that the company’s per store sales will increase rests partly on the improved customer satisfaction results.  Choice (B)  says that only a score of 5 in customer satisfaction correlates strongly with increased sales. Therefore, if most of the 75% of respondents who rated their satisfaction a 4 or a 5 in fact rated it a 4, then the force or the survey results, in terms of predicting increased sales, becomes much weaker.  choice (B)  does not tell you what the breakdown of 4s and 5s is, it does give reason to doubt the significance of that 75% figure.]

The correct answer is (B).

sayan640 · Answer

KarishmaB   GMATinsight  , Would you like to explain this part " Not all customers who shopped at the drugstore chain, but only a representative sample of them, responded to the survey." ? 
I dint understand completely what they meant by "representative sample ". Dint pick it either. But definitly I would like to know more about its implications.

Shikhar14 · Answer

"Not all customers who shopped at the drugstore chain, but only a representative sample of them, responded to the survey." 
Isnt this statement strengthening the argument by not letting us think of an alternate weakener, of the sample not being representative? Its strengthening the validity of the survey

Whereas "A separate survey among consumers who do not habitually shop at this company’s stores shows that most of them have an improved opinion of the company now compared to a year ago." just tells us that the image fo the company has improved, which has been implicitly stated in the question, given that the ratings have improved, so how is it strengthening anything

For the past few years, the per store sales of a drugstore chain have

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Support	Undermine
		The old management team was focused on customer satisfaction.
		Studies show that only a score of 5 in customer satisfaction correlates strongly with increased sales.
		Not all customers who shopped at the drugstore chain, but only a representative sample of them, responded to the survey.
		A separate survey among consumers who do not habitually shop at this company’s stores shows that most of them have an improved opinion of the company now compared to a year ago.
		The company is planning to open 57 new stores in the coming year.

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For the past few years, the per store sales of a drugstore chain have

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