Critical Reasoning

Which of the following completes the argument below.

Twenty percent of the stores in Morganville's downtown shopping district will fail within give years because they will be competing directly with the Savemart discount department store newly openedd in East Morganville. The downtown shopping district jas lost business at this rate before and has always completey rebounded. Confidence that will rebound again from the losses it is now about to suffer is ill founded, however, because _____________________

a) the stores likely to be put out of business by direct competition from Savemart are the downton shopping district's anchor stores, on whose ability to draw shoppers many of the other downtown stores depend

b) the bus line that has long connected the downtown area of Morganville with East Morganville has a tradition of carrying shoppers who reside in East Morganville into downtown Morganville to shop

c) when the downtown shopping district has rebounced before, the business premises of a failed business were typically taken over by a business of the same kind as had been there before

d) Savemart's business plan for teh East Morganville store is based on earning low profits, if any, during the first 5 years of store's existence

e) it is conceivable that the downtown shopping district could shrink substantially without collapsing altogether