Fashion Clothing

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imskpwr: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 377; Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 10:45 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 10 times

by imskpwr » Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:39 am

Many buyers of fashion clothing are inclined to contribute to charitable organizations, and are more likely to purchase clothing from companies that donate a portion of their profits to charity. Next weekend, a variety of fashion clothing retailers will hold sample sales at a downtown event; the event's organizers plan to hand out flyers listing which of the retailers donate to charity from their profits, in the hope of increasing those companies' sales at the event.

Which of the following, if true, most calls into question the appropriateness of the organizers' plan?

a) The cost to the organizers of designing and printing the flyers is equivalent to half an average day's worth of sample-sale profits for one of the retailers at the event.

b) Many of the retailers who donate profits to charity do so in order to garner tax breaks, rather than for purely altruistic reasons.

c) Among the retailers who will hold sample sales at next week's event, those that donate a portion of their profits to charity far outnumber those that do not.

d) Of the retailers at the event that donate a portion of their profits to charity, most have publicized those donations extensively in their advertising.

e) Many of the retailers who donate a portion of their profits to charity vary that portion from season to season, allocating a greater portion of their profits to charity during peak sales seasons.

Manhattan CAT-1, OA is D

Please explain why "e" is wrong.

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:39 am

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:49 am

imskpwr wrote:Many buyers of fashion clothing are inclined to contribute to charitable organizations, and are more likely to purchase clothing from companies that donate a portion of their profits to charity. Next weekend, a variety of fashion clothing retailers will hold sample sales at a downtown event; the event's organizers plan to hand out flyers listing which of the retailers donate to charity from their profits, in the hope of increasing those companies' sales at the event.

Which of the following, if true, most calls into question the appropriateness of the organizers' plan?

a) The cost to the organizers of designing and printing the flyers is equivalent to half an average day's worth of sample-sale profits for one of the retailers at the event.

b) Many of the retailers who donate profits to charity do so in order to garner tax breaks, rather than for purely altruistic reasons.

c) Among the retailers who will hold sample sales at next week's event, those that donate a portion of their profits to charity far outnumber those that do not.

d) Of the retailers at the event that donate a portion of their profits to charity, most have publicized those donations extensively in their advertising.

e) Many of the retailers who donate a portion of their profits to charity vary that portion from season to season, allocating a greater portion of their profits to charity during peak sales seasons.

Manhattan CAT-1, OA is D

Please explain why "e" is wrong.

To show that the plan is not APPROPRIATE, the correct answer choice must WEAKEN the conclusion.

The premise is about X: handing out FLYERS listing WHICH OF THE RETAILERS DONATE TO CHARITY from their profits.
The conclusion is about Y: increasing SALES at the event.

The assumption is that X is linked to Y: that handing out the FLYERS will lead to an increase in SALES at the event.
The correct answer will BREAK THE LINK: it will show that handing out the flyers will NOT lead to an increase in SALES.

Answer choice D: Of the retailers at the event that donate a portion of their profits to charity, MOST HAVE PUBLICIZED THOSE DONATIONS EXTENSIVELY IN THEIR ADVERTISING.
Since the FLYERS list information that has already been PUBLICIZED EXTENSIVELY, handing them out is unlikely to affect SALES, invalidating the conclusion that SALES will increase.

The correct answer is D.

Answer choice E: Many of the retailers who donate a portion of their profits to charity vary that portion from season to season, allocating a greater portion of their profits to charity during peak sales seasons.
Outside the scope. We are not told that the flyers will list WHAT PORTION of the profits are donated to charity. If the flyers were to list this information, then handing them out could lead to an increase in sales, STRENGTHENING the conclusion -- the OPPOSITE of what we want.

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imskpwr: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 377; Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 10:45 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 10 times

by imskpwr » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:19 am

Thanks Mitch sir for the prompt reply.

It will be a great help if u pls correct my approach.
I think that in weaken/strengthen/assumption based question it is always better to first find out the underlying assumptions and then analyze the impact of each answer choices on this assumption.

what i thought about the stimulus, while attempting this problem is that,

Conclusion: The flyers listing which of the retailers donate to charity from their profits will help in increasing those companies' sales at the event.

Premise(FACT that give reason for a conclusion):BECAUSE Many buyers of fashion clothing are inclined to contribute to charitable organizations, and are more likely to purchase clothing from companies that donate a portion of their profits to charity.

Assumption(missing relation):that handing out the FLYERS will lead to an increase in SALES at the event.

Why i picked "e" is because,

Retailers are Allocating profit during Peak sale seasons. That indicates that Peak sales/Sales is not caused by the Profit. Hence, Directly attacking the premise.

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:40 am

imskpwr wrote:Thanks Mitch sir for the prompt reply.

It will be a great help if u pls correct my approach.
I think that in weaken/strengthen/assumption based question it is always better to first find out the underlying assumptions and then analyze the impact of each answer choices on this assumption.

what i thought about the stimulus, while attempting this problem is that,

Conclusion: The flyers listing which of the retailers donate to charity from their profits will help in increasing those companies' sales at the event.

Premise(FACT that give reason for a conclusion):BECAUSE Many buyers of fashion clothing are inclined to contribute to charitable organizations, and are more likely to purchase clothing from companies that donate a portion of their profits to charity.

Assumption(missing relation):that handing out the FLYERS will lead to an increase in SALES at the event.

Why i picked "e" is because,

Retailers are Allocating profit during Peak sale seasons. That indicates that Peak sales/Sales is not caused by the Profit. Hence, Directly attacking the premise.

How does it help to show that sales are not caused by profit? Sales LEAD to profit. The greater the number of sales, the greater the profit. It is not possible for profit to cause sales.

Perhaps you misinterpreted sales. Here, an increase in sales means an increase in the NUMBER OF ITEMS SOLD. The other definition of sale -- the selling of goods at reduced prices -- is not the meaning intended here.

imskpwr: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 377; Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 10:45 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 10 times

by imskpwr » Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:26 pm

Thanks Mitch Sir.
That was not the exact reason, But I got it now from the 1st reply.

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