47) The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of movie-rental stores.
Because of declining profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten movie-rental stores. Raising prices is not a good option, since we are famous for our low prices. Instead, we should reduce our operating hours. Last month our store in downtown Marston reduced its hours by closing at 6:00 p.m. rather than 9:00 p.m. and reduced its overall inventory by no longer stocking any DVD released more than five years ago. Since we have received very few customer complaints about these new policies, we should now adopt them at all other Movies Galore stores as our best strategies for improving profits.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
结论:We should now adopt them at all other Movies Galore stores as our best strategies for improving profits.
证据1:Because of declining profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten movie-rental stores. Raising prices is not a good option, since we are famous for our low prices. Instead, we should reduce our operating hours.
证据2: Last month our store in downtown Marston reduced its hours by closing at 6:00 p.m. rather than 9:00 p.m. and reduced its overall inventory by no longer stocking any DVD released more than five years ago. Since we have received very few customer complaints
(TS1)To begin with, we need to know more about the Movies Galore store in Marston. 首先,消费者对这一举措的态度以及行为模式:可能有很多人不满但没有反应给店家。也可能因为运作时间减少,给部分消费者带来不便,使他们转而成为了别家同类商店的顾客。这样的话也会影响收益。其次,盈利状况。是否实行这一举措后,不管顾客有没有减少,确实收益增加。
(TS2)In addition, it's also important to look into the habits of the customers in other regions where there is a Movies Galore store and those in Marston.
可能Marston的人晚上不爱出门,逛影碟商店,所以关门早不会损失大量顾客。而且Marston的顾客普遍不爱看五年外的老影片。而这一情况在其他地区很可能不同甚至完全相反。这样盲目实施这一政策就会大大减少这些店的收益。
(TS3)Finally, before we admit that this change in operation is the best strategies for improving profits, we need more information about other potential ways to achieve the same goal. 首先加价这一策略可能就可行,适当且少量的加价,顾客有可能可以接受,只要还低于其他同行的价格就还有竞争优势。其次可能有其他方法,比如搞一些有营销策略的活动来促进消费,比如租碟积分,积满分数免费租一次等等来刺激消费者增加租碟频率。没有比较这些就说这一策略是最好的是hasty的。
The author of the argument concludes that the all of the Movies Galore stores should adopt the new policies about operation in Marston to improve profits as raising prices is bad option and policies in Marston received few customer complaints. We need more information about the store in Marston, customers' habits of renting movie DVDs in different Movies Galore stores, and other potential methods to improve profits instead of changing the operation pattern before we check whether the suggestion is the best strategies.
From a memo of further development, the Movies Galore’s owner believe they should cut down operating hours for 10 movie-rental stores to save costs and reducing inventory of DVDs released more than 5 years ago. It is logical for the owner to take measurement for sake of profits, but this memorandum is lack of further evidence on the effectiveness of their trial in Marston branch, the availability to be applied to stores around the states and proper strategy on price policy.
Firstly, more evidence is needed to testify that relatively low service charge is MG’s the most competing edge and what strategy should be taken with it. MG或否因为其他原因,如DVD储量大,而受到消费者欢迎;如果价格真是最大竞争力,需要一个调查来说明MG的价格比行业平均水平低多少,如果涨价后也低于竞争对手则也是可取。
The owner cites an experimental measure applied to Movies Galore Marston last month that to reduce operating hours to save cost, which should be combined with further details to evaluate its effectiveness.
1.因为Very few complaints 不能代表其他消费者普遍接受,也有可能他们因为关门早就不再来;为得到准确feedback,MG可以针对会员和非会员进行问卷调查来找到消费者真实的态度。
2. 一个月时间太短,可以看一下以前的rental record, 看一下在6-9点是否有很多借出记录来判断这时段的流量
3. 有一种可能性是downtown M 分店因为在CBD,所以人们都是工作日中午和周末白天来逛,因此晚上不营业对生意影响不明显,但另一个分店是人们下班后的休闲去处,缩短晚上营业时间会有很大影响;
Moreover, as far as the availability of stop stocking DVDs released before 5 years ago, the owner needs to display more details on consumers’ habits, which might vary significantly among different area.
1.消费者可能不会直接抱怨(lead to the result of few complaints),而是去竞争对手那里寻找DVD
2. 一个月时间太短,应参照rental record上这些DVD被借出的频率来判断是否被需要
3. 一种可能性是downtown M的人们喜欢newly released DVD,但是其他分店的人很喜欢vintage,如果借不到5年前的DVD他们就不来了。所以需要一个full-scale survey on consumers habits for each store.
TS
The owner argues to adopt the same policies as Marston at all other Movies Galroe stores to improve profits because few complaints have been received from customers about the new policies. Well, in order to assess whether the argument is reasonable or not, a few evidences are needed. These evidences may strengthen or weaken this argument.
ts1
First of all, evidence need to be provided to prove that the situations of all other Movies Galore stores are the same as Marston so that the same policies would work in other stores. 各分店的位置不一样,所面对的消费者也不一样,而且,分店的规模、所含影片也不一样,也许,别的分店所面对的消费者大部分在下午六点以后才有空去,而且,比较喜欢看经典老片。
ts2
The second evidences needed are that the customers are really not discontented with those policies and would go to Marston to enjoy films in the future so that the income of Marston did not and will not decrease. 没收到多少抱怨,并不代表消费者心中对此没有怨言,可能有很多人就此会很少来Marston了或甚至不来了。而且,因为是在多商区,所以,六点后租借的人还是比较多的,而且因为文章没有提供相关信息,所以很可能Marston上个月的收入比以往降低了。
ts3
Thirdly, I need evidence to prove that most of customers go to Movies Galore stores due to its low prices rather than other factors and other cinemas which have relative high prices do not perform so well as Movies Galore stores. 可能,消费者去M是因为其优越的位置、较好的环境、众多的影片及优质的服务,而绝非仅仅是看它的低价,而且,可能消费者对出租影片的需求太大了,所以就算别的店的价高,依旧也是生意很好。
ts4
Finally, the critical evidences need to be proved are that it is the high operating expenses rather than other factors that lead to Movies Galore`s declining profits and it is not ubiquitous market reaction to economy recession.可能,是因为管理不当,内部环境较差,服务较差,碟片老旧,所以来的人少了,而且,也有可能是因为经济萧条、人们工作繁忙,所以租借影片的人普遍的少了。