Market Analyst: A major supermarket chain tested an automated pricing system that dynamically discounts perishable food items as they approach their expiration dates. During a six-month trial across twenty suburban supermarkets, food waste from expired perishables dropped by 25 percent, while store profit margins increased. Because the automated discounts motivated consumers to purchase goods nearing expiration before they spoiled, the chain plans to deploy the system across all its urban supermarkets to achieve a similar reduction in perishable food waste.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which the market analyst's argument depends?
- AUrban grocery stores do not sell a smaller total volume of perishable goods than suburban grocery stores do.
- BImplementing dynamic pricing is the single most cost-effective method available to reduce food waste in urban retail environments.
- Consumers in urban grocery stores are not significantly less willing to purchase perishable food items nearing expiration at discounted prices than suburban consumers are.Cevap
- DThe overall profit margins in the urban stores will increase by at least as much as the suburban stores' profit margins did during the pilot program.
- ESuburban consumers who participated in the pilot program did not reduce their purchases of non-perishable grocery items.
Cevap
The argument depends on assuming that consumers in urban grocery stores are not significantly less willing to purchase perishable food items nearing expiration at discounted prices than suburban consumers are.
The conclusion states that implementing dynamic pricing across urban supermarkets will achieve a similar reduction in perishable food waste to that observed in suburban supermarkets. The stated mechanism for this reduction is that price discounts motivated shoppers to buy items nearing expiration. For this causal mechanism to work in urban stores, urban shoppers must be similarly receptive to purchasing discounted near-expiration goods. If urban shoppers are significantly less willing to purchase such items, the discount mechanism will fail to stimulate demand, preventing the reduction in waste. Therefore, the argument strictly requires assuming that urban shoppers are not significantly less willing to buy these items.
Adım Adım Çözüm
Anahtar Kavram
Necessary Assumption (Extrapolating Sample Results and Applying the Negation Test)
Alternatif Yöntem
Negation Technique: Transform each candidate answer into its logical opposite. If negating a statement leaves the argument's conclusion viable, that statement is not a necessary assumption. The only statement whose negation makes the conclusion untenable is the required assumption.
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