Deepthi Subbu wrote:Sales at a local sandwich shop have been declining steadily since a health food restaurant opened its doors for business on the same block three months ago. The owner of the sandwich shop concludes that the best way to raise sales back to prior levels is to offer special sandwich prices that compete with the low prices at the health food restaurant.

Which of the following assumptions helps to justify the owner's conclusion?

a.Sales at the sandwich shop reached an all-time high six months ago.

b.The sandwich shop's prices are currently higher than those of a similar shop located in a neighboring town.

c.The sandwich shop does not currently offer any healthful food items.

d.The health food restaurant is running its special prices as a temporary promotion and will be raising its prices at the end of the year.

e.Local consumers prefer the food at the sandwich shop to the food at the health food restaurant.

answer is E. Careful identification of what you need to do is crucial here: you're looking for something that will justify the conclusion that lowering prices will bring back customers. what is the author assuming? By saying "If I lower prices, they will come", the owner is assuming that price is the deciding issue - the real cause as to why people are buying at the health shop and not his sandwich shop. There are many ways to WEAKEN this - perhaps people are buying at the health shop because his sandwiches are not perceived as healthy, or because the health food tastes better, or because the other place has a hot waitress, or any other cause OTHER than price. So in order to do the reverse and STRENGTHEN his conclusion, the author must assume that "there's no reason other than price" to go to the health shop. E eliminates such a potential reason - the people like his sandwiches, actually prefer them to the health food place, so the reason his sales have dropped is not that they don't like the food - which strengthens the conclusion that price is indeed the deciding issue, and that lowering prices will bring customers flocking back to the sandwich shop.

hey Geva,
Could you please help me out by explaining what's the problem with option B.


thanx

killer1387 wrote:hey Geva,
Could you please help me out by explaining what's the problem with option B.


thanx

What's right about B?

killer1387 wrote:hey Geva,
Could you please help me out by explaining what's the problem with option B.


thanx

If you cannot tell yourself clearly why the answer justifies the owner's conclusion other than "it discusses price", then that's already a sign that you're talking yourself into choosing a red herring. The fact that the sandwhich shop's prices are higher than a similar shop in a neighboring town may seem to indicate that the owner's prices are high compared to the benchmark, but that's not an assumption that the author makes to justify his conclusion - it's merely a strengthening fact, and not a very good one (the other shop in the neighboring town could be exceptionally cheap, or running a temporary special).

You are asked which of the following assumptions help justify the conclusion: if we assume that the people like his sandwiches (yet still go to the health shop), that strengthens the conclusion that price is the problem.

Thanx Geva
actually i was confused on the line of a level or benchmark. Now its clear.

killer1387 wrote:hey Geva,
Could you please help me out by explaining what's the problem with option B.


thanx

B talks about the shop in the neighboring town which is not relevant to this question. We have to make our comparision between the new shop in the same block and the local shop.

Hi Geva,

I am confused. Can you tell me why it can't be D?

msr4mba wrote:Hi Geva,

I am confused. Can you tell me why it can't be D?

Because it's irrelevant. Even if I assume that the restaurants low prices are temporary, how does that strengthen the conclusion that if I lower my prices, my sales will go back to what they were?

"or because the other place has a hot waitress"

Screw the GMAT, where is the sandwich shop?