Critical Reasoning

Normally, increases in the price of a product decrease its sales except when the price increase accompanies an improvement in the product. Wine is unusual, however. Often increases in the price of a particular producer's wine will result in increased sales, even when the wine itself is unchanged.

Which of the following, if true, does most to explain the anomaly described above?

(A) The retail wine market is characterized by an extremely wide range of competing products.

(B) Many consumers make decisions about which wines to purchase on the basis of reviews of wine published in books and periodicals.

(C) Consumers selecting wine in a store often use the price charged as their main guide to the wine's quality.

(D) Wine retailers and producers can generally increase the sales of a particular wine temporarily by introducing a price discount.

(E) Consumers who purchase wine regularly generally have strong opinions about which wines they prefer.

OA is C
How did the OA could be C, I have a thought on option A.

Roland2rule wrote:Normally, increases in the price of a product decrease its sales except when the price increase accompanies an improvement in the product. Wine is unusual, however. Often increases in the price of a particular producer's wine will result in increased sales, even when the wine itself is unchanged.

Which of the following, if true, does most to explain the anomaly described above?

(A) The retail wine market is characterized by an extremely wide range of competing products.

(B) Many consumers make decisions about which wines to purchase on the basis of reviews of wine published in books and periodicals.

(C) Consumers selecting wine in a store often use the price charged as their main guide to the wine's quality.

(D) Wine retailers and producers can generally increase the sales of a particular wine temporarily by introducing a price discount.

(E) Consumers who purchase wine regularly generally have strong opinions about which wines they prefer.

OA is C
How did the OA could be C, I have a thought on option A.

The paradox we're trying to explain: usually when the price of a product increases, sales decrease. For wine, when price increases, sales increase too. This would make sense if price itself is considered an indication of quality. If I think a $30 bottle of wine will taste better than a $15 bottle of wine, I'd be more likely to purchase the former. This is what C gives us.

'A' gives us nothing about the relationship between the price of wine and the sales of wine, and so is irrelevant.