[clover] 第三次作业 argument 117 by 七七夕夕

七七夕夕UID: 2753801

The following is a memo from the business manager of Valu-Mart stores.
"Over 70 percent of the respondents to a recent survey reported that they are required to take more work home with them from the workplace than they were in the past. Since Valu-Mart has not seen impressive sales in its office-supply departments in the past, we should take advantage of this work-at-home trend by increasing at all Valu-Mart stores the stock of home office machines such as printers, small copy machines, paper shredders, and fax machines. We will also increase stock of office supplies such as paper, pens, and staplers. With these changes, our office-supply departments will become the most profitable component of our stores."
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Grounded on a survey showing an increasing work-at-home trend and corresponding plan of increasing the stock of home office machines and other office supplies, the author concluded that the office-supply departments will become the most profitable component of Valu-Mart stores. However, the conclusion is untenable after careful scrutiny in the reason process and those evidences.

To begin with, the respondents taking more work home with them from the workplace than they were in the past doesn’t necessarily indicate they need to buy more home office machines and supplies as the author implied. There are two possibilities that are probably to happen leading this implication to make little sense. One is that the home office machines and supplies is sufficient even with increment of work, for the work required to take home had been large resulting in enough stock of home office machines and supplies at home. The other is that some people take and do work home using the lap-top or portable store medium for transfer the work to home computer, and bring it to office for printing, copying and other forms of final processing. This way could save their own money for home office facilities as well as meet the requirement of the company, thereby probably adopting by most people. Under either of these two conditions, the premise of the conclusion that the purchase potentiality grows would collapse.

Even people indeed need to buy more home office facilities to ensure their work being finished, the profitable expectation may not realize for following three reasons. Firstly, it is entirely possible that not the low purchase potentiality alone is responsible for the impressive sales in the past in the office-supply department. As long as the other problem directly affecting the sales like the failure of marketing measures compared to other stores unsolved, the changes relevant to the work-at-home trend would turn out as no increase profit. Also, the changes itself might not be a profitable method. Considering the profit is up to both cost and gain, increase the home office facilities at all store without option might result in enlarged cost but no corresponding gain, leading by the possibility that some stores is located far from the expected buyers. Thus, to make out the profit by the changes still need to find and resolve other affecting problems and do some market survey as to which stores are available for expected buyers whereas others are not.

In addition, it is still a long way to go to conclude that office-supply departments will become the most profitable component of their stores, for other department may also benefit from this work-at-home trend.  The increasing work to do at home may bring about increasing needs, such as the fast food need, for they have litter time to prepare for supple as much work to do. The increasing quick meals might raise the sales in food departments at the same time. For that matter, it is difficult to anticipate that the office-supply departments will become the top profitable component of their stores without the evaluation of other departments’ changes.

Given the analysis above, the conclusion of the author may be over positive and therefore produce wrong decision regard of the business of their stores. In order to make office-supplies departments the most profitable departments in the stores, the author need to reexamine the survey’s result, search and resolve the problems for past impressive sales, do market survey to locate specifically the stores need to change and give an full evaluation of other departments’ situations.

七七夕夕UID: 2753801

交得有些晚了，不过字数还是比较满意的。。。
终于回家了：）