Critical Reasoning

For several consecutive years, poultry prices at each of three statewide
grocery-store chains have exceeded the national average by about fifty
percent. Also, the per-pound difference in poultry prices among the three
stores never amounted to more than a few pennies, while among grocery
stores in other states, the prices varied by nearly a dollar over the same
period. The three chains must have conspired to not compete among
themselves and to fix their poultry prices at mutually agreed-upon levels.


The claim that the three grocery-store chains conspired to fix
poultry prices rests on which of the following assumptions for the
time period referred to above?
A. No other grocery store charged higher prices for poultry other
than the three chains.
B. Average poultry prices in the state where the three chains
operate exceeded the national average.
C. The price that grocery stores paid for poultry did not vary
significantly from state to state.
D. Consumers in the state where the three chains operate generally
prefer poultry over other meats, even if poultry is more
expensive than other meats.
E. Other grocery stores operating in the same state as the three
chains also sell poultry to consumers.

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