The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of
video rental stores.
“In order to reverse the recent decline in our profits, we must reduce operating expenses at
Movies Galore’s ten video 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 is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain
how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
It is generally true that a decrease in expenses will lead to a higher profit, however this is not always true. When considering the suggestion it is important to consider the negative repercussions of cutting expenses. The prompt assumes that cutting costs has no downside, which is fallacious at best. While too quickly writing off other possible solutions to their problem, like increasing costs. For this reasons the assessment is lacking information required to ensure a desired result will occur, and that their solution is optimal.
Decreasing costs will lead to higher profits if everything else is kept the same. However, closing the store earlier while it would with near certainly decrease costs, could potentially have huge negative ramifications for their business that were unexpected. 6:00pm is around the time most people would be getting home from work. Most of the time when people used to rent movies they would watch them at night. 6:00pm is a particularly early time to close their store and could have a large hit to their profits, by losing them revenue of people who watch movies in the evening. It might even be preferable because of this for them to open later instead of close earlier. What they should instead do is an assessment of the operating cost at different hours of the day, and the revenue generated from those hours of the day. That way they can find whether it is actually even beneficial for their profits to cut hours. For instance if at those times they are still maintaining a profit, just a lesser one than they had before, it would be preferable to not change the stores times at all.Without this assessment it simply isn't possible to determine whether changing store hours will be good for their bottom line.
Moreover the proposal simply assumes that cutting costs is the best course of action in the first place. They claim that damage to their reputation would be worse to their bottom line than cutting costs, yet this is not supported. More importantly even if it were true, it isn't even certain that increasing costs would hurt their reputation. For instance if their profits are down it is possible that other video rental stores profits are down as well. If the market collectively raised prices as a result of this it is entirely possible that Movies Galore raising their prices wouldn't damage their reputation at all. Since relatively they would still be "famous for [their] special bargains". To decide whether or not cutting costs is the preferable option they would need to do a study to determine the effect of increasing prices on their reputation. If it turned out that increasing prices did have a negative effect on their reputation, then they would need to access what effect that would have on their revenue. Specifically whether the decrease in sales is yet higher prices leads a larger or smaller revenue. Devoid of these assessments there is not way to guarantee that their recommendations and more so their dismissal of other option are valid.
In conclusion, while it is possible that the optimal situation for Galore to improve their profits would be to cut costs, their findings are inconclusive. It ignores the effects their cutting of costs could have on their revenue. While also too quickly dismissing alternative possibilities to increase their profitability. For this reason I would say that without the further inquiry into the subject ones is not able to determine their results will have the desired effect, or be the most astute.
Comments
Essay evaluation 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: 28 15
No. of Words: 597 350
No. of Characters: 2868 1500
No. of Different Words: 261 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.943 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.804 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.529 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 195 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 138 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 82 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.321 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.669 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.536 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.266 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.415 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.09 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 113, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “When” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...rofit, however this is not always true. When considering the suggestion it is import...
^^^^
Line 1, column 405, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
...eir problem, like increasing costs. For this reasons the assessment is lacking infor...
^^^^
Line 2, column 1090, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: Without
...e to not change the stores times at all.Without this accessment it simply isnt possible...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 1124, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: isn't
...t all.Without this accessment it simply isnt possible to determine whether changing ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 272, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: isn't
...re importantly even if it were true, it isnt even certain that increasing costs woul...
^^^^
Line 3, column 576, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: wouldn't
...that Movies Galore raising their prices wouldnt damage their reputation at all. Since r...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 712, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...heir] special bargains'. To decide whether or not cutting costs is the preferable option ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 230, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “While” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...g of costs could have on their revenue. While also too quickly dismissing alternative...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, first, however, if, so, still, then, well, while, for instance, in conclusion, as a result, in the first place
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 35.0 19.6327345309 178% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 25.0 12.9520958084 193% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 77.0 28.8173652695 267% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2935.0 2260.96107784 130% => OK
No of words: 589.0 441.139720559 134% => OK
Chars per words: 4.98302207131 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.92639038232 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62984224417 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 264.0 204.123752495 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.448217317487 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 903.6 705.55239521 128% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 1.0 8.76447105788 11% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.6225070461 57.8364921388 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.821428571 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.0357142857 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.5 5.70786347227 79% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 17.0 8.20758483034 207% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.0369338606988 0.218282227539 17% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0137947759014 0.0743258471296 19% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0287437328219 0.0701772020484 41% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0222006805776 0.128457276422 17% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0156192126578 0.0628817314937 25% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 14.3799401198 87% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 48.3550499002 121% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.6 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.81 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 117.0 98.500998004 119% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
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It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 16.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 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.