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.
The owner of Movies Galore in his recommendation for reducing the operational costs of the ten video rental stores, misses to consider prospects, which if true could prove that the recommendation is based on unwarranted assumptions and rife with fallacies.
First of all, the owner assumes that their "famous" strategy of special bargains would be beneficial in bringing profits rather than to raise their rental prices. However, he fails to provide evidence of the special bargains being "famous". Are the people in the city not willing to pay affordable yet higher prices? Are they famous in a different city than the one being considered here? Probably, the strategy is famous in another city where low income strata of people are present who prefer cheaper prices. If the current city consists of people from a wealthy background who are willing, it would be foolhardy on the part of the owner to slash prices when he could easily earn profits by raising them.
Secondly, the owner comfortably assumes that the changes made in downtown Marston to decrease its operational expenses would have the same impact if implemented in the other nine stores. Perhaps, the other nine stores are placed in a more cosmopolitan location where students are the primary source of their income. If then, were the store closing time reduced to 6:00 pm instead of the earlier time of 9:00pm, it would instead result in heavy losses of the business as the students who finish school at 6:00pm would not be able to make it to the store in time for their suitable purchases. Hence, the owner must consider the above question of similar impact on different locations and the demographics of the location, so as to make a sound argument.
Last but not the least, the owner attributes the recent decline in the profits solely to the operational expense of the business. We are provided with no evidence on this very fact mentioned in the memorandum and that a further reduction in this division could lead to a resurgence in profit. Probably, the latest collection of video rentals in the store did not resound with the choices of the customers? Of perhaps, an introduction of a new rental policy of paying the full price until the return of the VCDs, did not fit well with the consumers? Further, a new rental store opened up in the vicinity with prices and policies even moe friendly and competitive to that of Movies Galore. If the above scenarios were to be considered, the owner's argument would fail to hold water.
Hence, in conclusion, the owner of Movies Galore must deliberate upon the factors discussed and questions raised as above in order to ensure a resurgence in the store's profits.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 459 350
No. of Characters: 2174 1500
No. of Different Words: 227 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.629 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.736 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.553 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 161 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 110 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 71 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 39 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.275 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.611 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.317 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.541 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.116 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 117, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'misses considering'.
Suggestion: misses considering
...l costs of the ten video rental stores, misses to consider prospects, which if true could prove th...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 153, Rule ID: IF_IS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'is'?
Suggestion: is
...es, misses to consider prospects, which if true could prove that the recommendatio...
^^
Line 3, column 100, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...s; strategy of special bargains would be beneficial in bringing profits rather th...
^^
Line 3, column 195, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...heir rental prices. However, he fails to provide evidence of the special bargains...
^^
Line 5, column 721, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
...s and the demographics of the location, so as to make a sound argument. Last but not ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 739, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'owners'' or 'owner's'?
Suggestion: owners'; owner's
...ve scenarios were to be considered, the owners argument would fail to hold water. H...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, hence, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, well, as to, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 76.0 55.5748502994 137% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2253.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 456.0 441.139720559 103% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94078947368 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.62105577807 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.76369999556 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 234.0 204.123752495 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.513157894737 0.468620217663 110% => OK
syllable_count: 713.7 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.7527833443 57.8364921388 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 125.166666667 119.503703932 105% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.3333333333 23.324526521 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.55555555556 5.70786347227 97% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.275821826073 0.218282227539 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0746058656404 0.0743258471296 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0634936048656 0.0701772020484 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.154049825483 0.128457276422 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0643541498963 0.0628817314937 102% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.5 14.3799401198 101% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.67 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.89 8.32208582834 107% => OK
difficult_words: 116.0 98.500998004 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.5 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.