The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of movie-rental stores.
"In order to reverse the recent decline in our profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten movie-rental stores. Since we are famous for our special bargains, raising our rental prices is not a viable way to improve profits. Last month our store in downtown Marston significantly decreased its operating expenses by closing at 6:00 p.m. rather than 9:00 p.m. and by reducing its stock by eliminating all movies released more than five years ago. Therefore, in order to increase profits without jeopardizing our reputation for offering great movies at low prices, we recommend implementing similar changes in our other nine Movies Galore stores."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
In a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of movie rental stores, it was recommended that in order to increase their profits by decreasing the operating expenses by closing the store by 6:00 PM and by reducing the stocks by eliminating movies released more than five years ago. This suggestion is merely based on the experience of one out of the 10 stores that the owner posses. However, before any decision is made, the following questions need to be answered.
First of all, it is stated in the prompt that by decreasing the operating expenses, one of the stores was able to raise profits. But will that be true for all the other stores? In other words, is the store in downtown Marston comparable to the rest of the stores? The different movie rental stores maybe in different parts of the city or the country and hence will attract different kind of people. There may have been a possibility that the region where the Marston store is situated has more customers during the day and hence it was possible for them to keep the store closed in the evening. That does not assure that it will also work in the other rental stores as well. The alternate scenario could be that the town faces problems with electricity and hence the manager chooses to close the store before it gets dark. Since the town is aware of the issue, the store did not have any difficulty or complains from the customers. If either of these scenarios holds merit, the argument is undermined.
Secondly, will the store make profit by not renting movies released more than five years ago? The people who visit these movie rentals can have differed tastes in movies. Some could be inclined to classics that are released more than ten years ago. The newly released movies are available in the theatres and hence people rent movies that are not being shown there. This could result in more decrease in the profits of the store and disrupt the entire business. If the above scenario holds water, then the conclusion drawn in the argument is significantly weakened.
Ultimately, the argument gives no evidence about the cost of renting movies and maybe that is the issue of the decreasing profits. The stores of Movie Galore must be renting movies at a very high cost and hence attracting only affluent class of the population. The bargains that are stated in the argument are insignificant for the other not-so-rich class. There also may be a possibility that the store has some other sections added to attract customers, for example the music records section, videos games section or even books section that have been increasing the operating costs of the store like electricity, maintenance and cleanliness and thus resulting in the decline of the profits. If the above assumptions are literal, then the argument is purposely weakened.
In conclusion, the argument as it stands now is greatly inaccurate due to various unjustified postulations. If the owner is able to give justified explanations to all the above scenarios and provide accurate verification (perhaps in the form of a systematic analysis of the argument), then it will be possible to verify whether the recommendation will be beneficial for all the other stores too.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 551 350
No. of Characters: 2617 1500
No. of Different Words: 241 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.845 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.75 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.539 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 170 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 125 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 93 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.04 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.121 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.68 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.294 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.352 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.064 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 2 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, thus, well, for example, in conclusion, kind of, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 70.0 55.5748502994 126% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2673.0 2260.96107784 118% => OK
No of words: 550.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 4.86 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84273464058 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.60440123351 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 251.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.456363636364 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 860.4 705.55239521 122% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 71.889403948 57.8364921388 124% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.92 119.503703932 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.92 5.70786347227 104% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.316823707731 0.218282227539 145% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0868749427296 0.0743258471296 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0916368891225 0.0701772020484 131% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.187379175851 0.128457276422 146% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.100160883175 0.0628817314937 159% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 14.3799401198 87% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.91 12.5979740519 87% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.23 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 122.0 98.500998004 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.