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 addressed in order to decide whether implementing the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result and explain how the answers to those questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The owner of Movies Galore, a chain of video rental stores claims that reducing the operating expenses of their stores would help in reversing their recent decline in profits. This claim seems arguable on grounds of lack of evidence and proof. There are several questions that need to be answered in order to ensure that the change would actually bring the needed profits and not make the situation worse.
The owner seems to have taken some measures to come up with possible changes that they could make to come out of the stump in which they are stuck. They closed their store in downtown Marston at 6 pm rather than at 9 pm. Further, they also cut off their stock of movies released more than five years ago. However, the owner doesn't mention if that by taking this measure of the store showed any profits. The question that needs to be asked here boils down to whether the changes made at one of their stores showed the desired results. If the store did show some significant improvement without compromising the comfort of the customers then this could probably be a viable option. However, if because the store becomes unavailable to access for a lot of people - working crowd for example - because of the time constraint then this method could backfire.
The owner needs to answer the question of what the reasons are for the decline in profits. Could it be that the reason isn't the hefty operating expenses? Has the quality of the store and its products reduced? As the owner mentions that the store has movies released over 5 years ago there might be chances that the employees of the store aren't making the effort of restocking the shelves with the newest and most wanted movies. A small survey could be the answer to this. If the store collects enough information about what the public wants they could focus on improving the quality.
New stores are established everywhere every day. There could be a new movie rental store that started just next to the Movies Galore. This new rental store might even be providing food or other commodities along with doing the rental business. This makes the news store more appealing and convenient for a lot of people. The owner must confess if a new competition has surfaced around the block which could bring a lot of things into perspective.
The store owner must look into the environment in which the store in Marston operates. For example, if the neighborhood of Marston rife with senior citizens then it it would be a practical decision to close the store at 6 pm rather than 9 pm as most people of this age go to bed quite early or don't leave their house at late hours. However, if the other nine stores are situated at a location that is prime to the younger crowd or even the working crowd then closing the stores at 6 pm would affect the store adversely. The younger crowd is busy during the day with work or college and evenings are the only time they could even visit a store. Keeping the store open till 9 pm at least would let them pay a visit after their commitments for the day.
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: 26 15
No. of Words: 549 350
No. of Characters: 2460 1500
No. of Different Words: 258 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.841 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.481 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.229 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 149 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 99 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 55 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 28 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.115 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.795 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.423 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.291 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.483 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.076 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 13, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
The owner of Movies Galore, a chain of video rental s...
^^
Line 3, column 325, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...than five years ago. However, the owner doesnt mention if that by taking this measure ...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 535, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” 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.
...heir stores showed the desired results. If the store did show some significant imp...
^^
Line 5, column 120, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: isn't
...in profits. Could it be that the reason isnt the hefty operating expenses? Has the q...
^^^^
Line 5, column 339, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: aren't
...chances that the employees of the store arent making the effort of restocking the she...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 473, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” 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.
...all survey could be the answer to this. If the store collects enough information a...
^^
Line 9, column 163, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: it
... Marston rife with senior citizens then it it would be a practical decision to close ...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 295, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...le of this age go to bed quite early or dont leave their house at late hours. Howeve...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, however, if, look, so, then, at least, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 19.0 12.9520958084 147% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 28.8173652695 128% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 70.0 55.5748502994 126% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2510.0 2260.96107784 111% => OK
No of words: 545.0 441.139720559 124% => OK
Chars per words: 4.60550458716 5.12650576532 90% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.83169070408 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.27891496232 2.78398813304 82% => OK
Unique words: 258.0 204.123752495 126% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.473394495413 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 766.8 705.55239521 109% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.59920159681 88% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.7858014399 57.8364921388 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 96.5384615385 119.503703932 81% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.9615384615 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.53846153846 5.70786347227 44% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.246297791959 0.218282227539 113% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0796017816119 0.0743258471296 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0773886084073 0.0701772020484 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.164491511928 0.128457276422 128% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0558631745658 0.0628817314937 89% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.8 14.3799401198 75% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 68.1 48.3550499002 141% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 12.197005988 71% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.46 12.5979740519 75% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.58 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.