Critical Reasoning

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.

IMO D

Question Type: Weaken

Conclusion: Handing over flyers for organizers will lead to increased sales of companies donating part of profit to charity.

A. Cost of campaign = 0.5 profit of one such retailer for one day. This cannot be weakener as there could be 10's 100's of retailers selling for 10's 100's days.

B. Irrespective of the motive of retailers, the consumers having charity preference will most likely purchase from them and therefore this statement is not a weakener.

C. This actually could be a strengthener

D. If the Retailers have advertised their donation feature, the added cost of flyer campaign could be a duplication and thus a waste of money. Therefore this could be the answer

E. Change of Scope. Nothing is said about the season of the current sales therefore this is irrelevant

why not A

how do we assume that cose of flyers is more than the profit from the sale?

IMO : D,

The question asks for the answer that "calls into question the appropriateness of the organizers' plan".

I think D fits the bill correctly, as most have publicized those donations extensively in their advertising, calling the organizers plan in question.

Is this the correct understanding?

This stimulus doesn't make sense. I don't understand the organizer's motive. If they are putting together a sample sale for a group of retailers, why would they try to drive business to some members of that group over the others?

Assuming there is a rational reason for favoring some of the participants over the others, I would opt for C. If the ones who donate "far outnumber" the ones who don't, you would be spending money to drive sales to all but a few of the retailers. IN other words, if 90% of the retailers already donate, you would have very little leeway to increase the sales of that group relative to the other 10%.

Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:This stimulus doesn't make sense. I don't understand the organizer's motive. If they are putting together a sample sale for a group of retailers, why would they try to drive business to some members of that group over the others?

Assuming there is a rational reason for favoring some of the participants over the others, I would opt for C. If the ones who donate "far outnumber" the ones who don't, you would be spending money to drive sales to all but a few of the retailers. IN other words, if 90% of the retailers already donate, you would have very little leeway to increase the sales of that group relative to the other 10%.

Why not D.If retailers already advertised their sales, isn't it unnecessary for the organizer to hand out flyers?
Moreover assuming organizer's intention is to make most of the retailers(if not all) enjoy more sales, isn't C strengthen the argument? (Hope assumption is warranted as the stimulus is more nonsensical )

C weakens because there is no point in boosting the ones who donate if almost everyone donates.

D could also be a weakener if we assume that people going to the sample sales are the same people who see the retailers' ads. Might not be true. Sample sale buyers and full-price buyers who watch the ads might be different groups.

Is there an official answer for this one?

I think this is from MGMAT ,and OA is D

Yup this is an MGMAT question. The official answer is D.