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 Movie Galore's ten video rental stores. Since we are famous for your 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.
In a memorandum, the owner of Movie Galore - a chain of video rental stores - proposed a change in operating hours of the Galore stores in order to reverse the recent decline in profits. He/she mentions since they are famous for their special bargains, an increase in rental prices would not add much profit, however, cutting operating expenses of the store would possibly increase their profit margin - this assumption has been bolstered by example of one of their rental store in downtown which has changed its closing hours from 6 pm to 9 pm and reducing stocks of movies released more than five years ago. Therefore, the owner proposes to copy the changes in that store in all the ten stores in order to increase his/her profit. In calculating profit for the store, the owner has unconsciously forgotten to consider other different ways to increase their profit margin rather than decreasing operating costs, and the factors that might get affected. In doing so, this change might also affect the overall transactions of the stores.
The owner has presumed that a decrease in operating expense has increased the profit of the store. The presumption is referenced only from one store in downtown though the actual increase in its profit has not been mentioned. Generally, a decrease in operating expense does not imply an increase in profit - the main motive of implementing changes is to increase profit. Instead, it might affect the total sells. The change in closing hours has surely cut off the operating expense, but it is also important to research on the decline in total sells of the store that can strongly back up the owner’s decision. It is possible that the store had minimum sells at those hours, meanwhile, this case does not apply to the other nine stores as well. Few stores might have the maximum sell at around those hours; closing at those hours could possibly result in loss. Therefore, it would be prudent that the owner has a meticulous study of each of his store of the hours of the day which has minimum sells so that operating expense could be minimized by closing stores at those hours.
The owner seems intimidated by the fact of a decrease in their profit. So he/she, instead of identifying the reasons behind a decrease in profit, seek an easy way out: decreasing operating cost. Actually, he/she should invest some time in exploring the cause behind the decrease in profit: the reason could be another competing store in the market, technology like the internet that makes video availability easy, etc. If there is another store, the owner could implement a different policy like decrease in the rental price, increasing varieties of movies that can attract more customers. If it is the internet, the owner can also adopt this new technology and start providing online services to its customers.
From the memorandum, it is clearly seen that the owner has been thoughtless in deciding the best option for his/her stores. Deciding closing hours for all stores based on the result of the single store seems imprudent. Predicting an increase in profit by decreasing the operating cost of the stores is not advisable. In fact, the owner should research the cause behind the decrease in profit. In that way, he can make a decision that will not only decrease their operating cost but also increase their profit margin.
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: 22 15
No. of Words: 571 350
No. of Characters: 2715 1500
No. of Different Words: 227 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.888 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.755 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.431 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 194 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 129 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 95 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 52 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.955 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.322 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.369 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.505 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.182 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 836, Rule ID: MAY_COULD_POSSIBLY[1]
Message: Use simply 'could'.
Suggestion: could
...und those hours; closing at those hours could possibly result in loss. Therefore, it would be ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, however, if, so, therefore, well, while, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.6327345309 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 49.0 28.8173652695 170% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 83.0 55.5748502994 149% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 16.3942115768 18% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2791.0 2260.96107784 123% => OK
No of words: 566.0 441.139720559 128% => OK
Chars per words: 4.93109540636 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.87757670434 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52987626781 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 241.0 204.123752495 118% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.425795053004 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 870.3 705.55239521 123% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 76.7314566923 57.8364921388 133% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.347826087 119.503703932 102% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.6086956522 23.324526521 106% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.0 5.70786347227 53% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 17.0 8.20758483034 207% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 1.0 6.88822355289 15% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.159867158528 0.218282227539 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0579664668662 0.0743258471296 78% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0766088561994 0.0701772020484 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.10807362542 0.128457276422 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0616202911894 0.0628817314937 98% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 48.3550499002 115% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.61 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.87 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 27.0 12.3882235529 218% => Linsear_write_formula is high.
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.