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Argument65
------题目------
The following appeared in a memo from the president of a chain of cheese stores located throughout the United States.
'For many years all the stores in our chain 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 domestic cheddar cheeses from Wisconsin. Furthermore, a recent survey by Cheeses of the World magazine indicates an increasing preference for domestic cheeses among its subscribers. Since our company can reduce expenses by limiting inventory, the best way to improve profits in all of our stores is to discontinue stocking many of our varieties of imported cheese and concentrate primarily on domestic cheeses.'
------正文------
Based solely upon the information provided above, it is unwise for the president to make the recommendation of discontinuing stocking imported cheese. In fact, the evidences given in the memo should be carefully examined in several other angles.
First, the market situation in one store last year does not necessarily reflect the trend of future in all the chain stores. One year is a period too short to get the general result. Since the store cited is newly opened, maybe it is the sales promotion on the domestic cheeses not the cheeses itself is primarily responsible for enhancement of the sell. Or perhaps the store was just located near Wisconsin, in which residents are naturally concerned about the cheeses produced in their own areas. In addition, only five kinds of cheeses might be not representative of all the domestic cheeses. Absent information regarding other domestic chesses, it is at least likely that the majority of domestic chesses are not well sold last year, so that they are not worth mentioning.
Second, the result of survey by the magazine is too vague to be meaningful. We could find nothing in the memo about how board the survey was. Perhaps the number of the subscribers of the magazine is no more than one thousand, which is relatively small compared to the total population of the US. Moreover, we are told nothing about the backgrounds of the subscribers, such as their ages, sexes, hobbies, and revenues etc. It might be the case that the magazine is mainly favored by the young women, who usually have a particular diet different from ordinary persons in order to be slim and beautiful. Thus the cheeses they choose might not be preferred by men and children. In short, the result of the survey lacks of reliability so that it could not reflect the attitudes of the people in general towards purchasing cheeses.
Third, even if people all around the country prefer domestic cheeses to the imported, the strategy concentrating on domestic ones does not conclusively result in the increase of the profits. The president overlooks other important elements affecting the profits. For example, maybe it is the lower price of domestic cheeses not the quality or taste that attracts consumers to buy them. In that case, because of the higher price and lower cost, the profits of imported cheeses might even be greater than that of domestic ones. For that matter, the recommendation to discontinue the imported cheese amounts to a poor advice, which could do nothing but decrease the profits of the store.
In sum, the argument has several critical fallacies as discussed above. Before putting the recommendation into practice, the president should confirm that no imported cheese is not well-sold and or making profits. He should also make a complete investigation showing that the preference of domestic cheese is not confined to certain people. |
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