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 has suggested the reduction in operating expenses of his store as a sure way to realize an increase in profit. He assumes that raising the rental prices will further decline the profits. Even though at first glance the argument seems viable, there are questions to be answered to make it more reasonable and pellucid.
First of all, the most important question to ask is; has the main cause of the decline in profit been identified? Finding out about the main cause will lead to making informed decisions that will actually solve the problem. Speculating that reducing operating cost is the sure way, is not logical. For instance, finding out that the operating expenses is too high that it does not tally the profit made or the store is not able to break even, will make the argument stronger.
Also, the argument did not state that profits increased after Marston decreased its operating cost. The only information that was given about Marston store was that they changed their scheduled closing time from 9:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m and that they eliminated some stock from five years ago. The question to ask is how this helped the store and how it is going to help the other chain of stores. Using only a month to judge the success of the store is not good enough. If the changes carried out benefited the store in question and the allowed time to check progress was more than a month, success can be a forecast for the other stores.
In addition, reducing scheduled closing time does not seem like a good idea. The owner should ask if the customers they would be loosing during the hours that the store would be closed will not rather affect their profit. Would it not in turn affect the reliability of the store and as well make the store loose its customers to other stores? It is in answering this with enough information, will this decision be cogent.
To add to the above, if the owner is sure that the reduction in operating expense will not affect the quality of the service they render, then the argument will be deemed logical. Even with that an information on how to keep the quality, satisfy customers and at the same time reduce operation expense will be needed. Stating that the company has a reputation of reduced prices is good but the owner can think about it that an increment can be made on the prices in a way that customers will be okay with.
It is in answering the above questions, will the argument make more sense and have resolute base to reduce operating cost and scheduled closing time.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
would be loosing during the hours
would be losing during the hours
make the store loose its customers
make the store lose its customers
----------------------
flaws:
1. need to make it clear that: it works for downtown Marston, it may not work for other stores.
2.Also need to argue: 'Since we are famous for our special bargains, raising our rental prices is not a viable way to improve profits.' . suppose all other businesses rise the price, it is still possible to raise the rental prices.
---------------------
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 2 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 457 350
No. of Characters: 2044 1500
No. of Different Words: 199 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.624 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.473 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.274 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 127 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 94 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 60 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 36 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.85 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.983 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.55 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.299 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.56 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.072 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 4, column 307, Rule ID: LOOSE_LOSE[2]
Message: Did you mean 'lose' (= miss, waste, suffer the loss etc.)?
Suggestion: lose
...of the store and as well make the store loose its customers to other stores? It is in...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, if, so, then, well, for instance, in addition, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2094.0 2260.96107784 93% => OK
No of words: 453.0 441.139720559 103% => OK
Chars per words: 4.62251655629 5.12650576532 90% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61343653406 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.30704499683 2.78398813304 83% => OK
Unique words: 202.0 204.123752495 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.44591611479 0.468620217663 95% => OK
syllable_count: 660.6 705.55239521 94% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => 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: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.2783337223 57.8364921388 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.7 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.65 23.324526521 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.35 5.70786347227 76% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => 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: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.104733684011 0.218282227539 48% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0379408171295 0.0743258471296 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0351216323953 0.0701772020484 50% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0634104549223 0.128457276422 49% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0433233281832 0.0628817314937 69% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.7 14.3799401198 81% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.81 12.5979740519 78% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.8 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 88.0 98.500998004 89% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
---------------------
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.