[66's]异题 Argument65

zoeyczUID: 2621425

TOPIC: ARGUMENT65 - The following appearedin a memo from the president of a chain of cheese stores located throughout theUnited States.

"For many years all the stores in ourchain have stocked a wide variety of both domestic and imported cheeses. Last year,however, the five best-selling cheeses at our newest store were all domesticcheddar cheeses from Wisconsin. Furthermore, a recent survey by Cheeses of theWorld magazine indicates an increasing preference for domestic cheeses amongits subscribers. Since our company can reduce expenses by limiting inventory,the best way to improve profits in all of our stores is to discontinue stockingmany of our varieties of imported cheese and concentrate primarily on domesticcheeses."
WORDS: 441
TIME: 01:06:36
DATE: 2010-2-25 14:14:25

Author draws the conclusion that his storesshould focus on domestic cheeses to increase revenue, which is based on lastyear's sales, a recent survey and the fact that limiting inventory will savecost. However, the evidences he provides here are not sound enough to make hisargument persuasive to me.

First of all, last year's sale of neweststore along isn’t strong enough to demonstrate constant trends that canforecast the future for all stores throughout the United States. It is possiblethat bad weather last year makes the imported cheeses rare and expensive, sothe five best selling cheeses are all domestic. Before that, imported cheesesdominate the sales all the time. On the other hand, newest stores maydifferentiate themselves by carrying more campaigns on domestic cheeses, whichboost the sales. Chances are that if taken all stores into account, domesticcheeses would no longer be the best-sellers.

Next comes the survey result provided byCheeses of the World magazine, which shows that domestic cheeses are gainingpreference. However, this survey is by no means a strong proof that supportsauthor's argument. For one thing, how the survey is conducted is questionable.It is investigated among the magazine's subscribers along, which may not berepresentative at all. Say for example, these respondents are majorly consistedwith remote villagers who cannot access to imported cheeses. It is alsopossible that domestic cheese makers are the main sponsors for the magazine,who carried out this survey, so the results favors domestic to bring in morerevenue. For another thing, even if the survey is unbiased, the outcome ofincreasing preference for domestic cheeses doesn't tell it would out beatimported ones in sales. Chances are that there used to be no interest indomestic cheeses at all. Even though there are increasing favors, compared toits imported counterpart, domestic ones just count for a tiny portion.

Last but not the least, expenses reductiondoes not guarantee revenue increase at all. Common sense tells us that profitequals to income deducting cost. Yet, there's no evidence shows that incomewill maintain the same as what is now. As the variety of choice decreases,customers may no long so much attracted to author's cheese stores. Or theprofit of domestic cheeses is marginal compared to imported ones. Though thecost decreases, the income goes down as well or even more than cost decreasingrate. Thus the revenue actually reduces.

In summary, author neither providessufficient evidences nor develops his argument cogently enough to convince me.He has to evaluate these facts more carefully to substantiate his claimdefensible enough for close scrutiny.

soilinkinUID: 2163892

很好很强大...依然没什么可改的...