Argument 14 Green Thumb Gardening Center The following appeared in a memo from the owner of Green Thumb Gardening Center, a small business serving a suburban town.
"There is evidence that consumers are becoming more and more interested in growing their own vegetables. A national survey conducted last month indicated that many consumers were dissatisfied with the quality of fresh vegetables available in supermarkets. And locally, the gardening magazine Great Gardens has sold out at the Village News stand three months in a row. Thus, we at Green Thumb Gardening Center can increase our profits by greatly expanding the variety of vegetable seeds we stock for gardeners this coming spring."
Time:unkown Words: 431 The owner of the Green Thumb Gardening Center (GTGC) recommends that they can get increase profits by stocking large variety of vegetable seeds for gardeners because of more and more consumers becoming interested in growing their own vegetables. To support this recommendation the memo relies on the dissatisfaction of many consumers with the fresh vegetable quality in the supermarkets now, and increasing sales of the gardening magazine at the Village News stand. However, the argument contains several logical flaws, which render it unconvincing. First of all, the survey taken nationwide is just over a single month. So we cannot be informed form this survey the quality of vegetable during the following months would be bad or not. Perhaps, the quality of vegetable would become good during the following months, even years. If so, the consumers still buy vegetable in the supermarkets. Otherwise, lots of people who live in the departments cannot grow their own vegetables. In this case, they would still buy vegetable in the supermarket. So, the owner’s assumption of consumers becoming more and more interested in growing their own vegetables cannot be reasoned. Secondly, based on the fact that the gardening magazine Great Gardens having sold out for three months, we also cannot conclude that consumers become interested in growing vegetable themselves. The apparently increasing sales of the magazines at the Village News stand over the three cannot serve to reflect all of the newsstands. Even if the general number of the gardening magazines increased, it is entirely possible that a new technology of gardening has been invented, so as to cause the increase. And it is equally possible the price cut of the magazines to induce that increase. Thus, the owner’s claim is open to doubt. Thirdly, even more if, consumers are now prefer to growing vegetable themselves, which does not mean that most consumers would come to buy the seeds of GTGC. The owner did not consider that there would be numerous seeds-stocking companies in this country, or many other potential competitors. Without adequate marketing information and information about the other seeds companies, it is difficult to assess the merit of the memo's recommendation. In conclusion, the recommendation is not well supported. To convince me that, the owner should do more survey about the vegetable quality in the supermarket, provide clear statistical evidence the general increasing of gardening magazines, and demonstrate that the consumers of magazines are the same to the ones who complain the vegetable quality. To better evaluate the recommendation, I would need more information about the market, to ensure the profitability of stocking seeds. |