Critical Reasoning

Although the discount stores in Goreville's central shopping district are expected to close within five years as a result of competition from a SpendLess discount department store that just opened, those locations will not stay vacant for long. In the five years since the opening of Colson's, a nondiscount department store, a new store has opened at the location of every store in the shopping district that closed because it could not compete with Colson's.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Many customers of Colson's are expected to do less shopping there than they did before the SpendLess store opened.
B. Increasingly, the stores that have opened in the central shopping district since Colson's opened have been discount stores.
C. At present, the central shopping district has as many stores operating in it as it ever had.
D. Over the course of the next five years, it is expected that Goreville's population will grow at a faster rate than it has for the past several decades.
E. Many stores in the central shopping district sell types of merchandise that are not available at either SpendLess or Colson's.

OA is B

What is it in the option that must be true? is the OA truly correct? An help is needed here. Thanks

Roland2rule wrote:Although the discount stores in Goreville's central shopping district are expected to close within five years as a result of competition from a SpendLess discount department store that just opened, those locations will not stay vacant for long. In the five years since the opening of Colson's, a nondiscount department store, a new store has opened at the location of every store in the shopping district that closed because it could not compete with Colson's.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Many customers of Colson's are expected to do less shopping there than they did before the SpendLess store opened.
B. Increasingly, the stores that have opened in the central shopping district since Colson's opened have been discount stores.
C. At present, the central shopping district has as many stores operating in it as it ever had.
D. Over the course of the next five years, it is expected that Goreville's population will grow at a faster rate than it has for the past several decades.
E. Many stores in the central shopping district sell types of merchandise that are not available at either SpendLess or Colson's.

This CR makes an ANALOGY.
The premise is about X: Colson's NONDISCOUNT department store.
The conclusion is about Y: the SpendLess DISCOUNT department store.

The argument assumes that X is linked to Y: that what was true for Colson's (a NONDISCOUNT store) will be true for Spendless (a DISCOUNT store).
To break the link, the correct answer must show how Colson's and Spendless are DIFFERENT.

Answer choice B: Increasingly, the stores that have opened in the central shopping district since Colson's opened have been DISCOUNT stores.
This answer choice highlights a key DIFFERENCE between Colson's and Spendless. Colson's is a NONDISCOUNT store. Thus, the recently opened DISCOUNT stores have been able to compete with it. But Spendless is itself a DISCOUNT store. Its arrival likely will DISCOURAGE other discount stores from opening, invalidating the conclusion that the central shopping district will be able to fill its vacancies.

The correct answer is B.