ARGUMENT65[0710G +U Aug小组]第15次作业

571633UID: 2333480

TOPIC: ARGUMENT65 - 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."


Citing a recent survey that the subscribers of Cheeses of the World prefer domestic cheeses, the writer of the memo said the cheese stores should discontinue stocking the imported cheese and concentrate primarily on domestic cheeses because all domestic chddar cheeses were the five best-selling cheeses in the newest stores. Nevertheless, further reflection tells me that the arguer ignores many practical problems.

First of all, the memo said that five best-selling cheeses at the newest store were all domestic cheeses, however, it can hardly render any support to the problem. The fact that the domestic cheeses only sold best in the newest stores can't guarantee that all the stores of company can benefit if they begin to sell the domestic cheeses. Consequently I don't ascribe the perversity on my part but rather to the inconsequence of the fact which is deficient in common sense that I can hardly reconcile myself to the lesson, so in order to convince us the arguer should do more investigation about more stores selling domestic cheeses.

What's more, according to the Cheeses of the World, among its subscribers there is an increasing preference for domestic cheeses. Lacking the evidence such as the total number of the subscribers, their genders, their ages and so forth, we can hardly draw the conclusion that they are representative. So we need more information about the subscribers of the magazine so as to know more about the fact of the problem.

Quite apart from the logistic problem, the arguer fails to tell us why to discontinue stocking the imported cheese and concentrate primarily on domestic cheeses is the best way to improve profits. Any decision aimed at solving the problem of the cheese selling should be based on more information about whether the imported cheese is profitable while the domestic cheeses is popular among the customers to gather sufficient data in order to identify the actual cause of the problem.

Simply put, the arguer's recommendation is not well presented because it is based on certain a series of doubtful assumptions that render it untenable as it stands. Before we can accept it, the arguer should provide more information - through a local survey or study - that whether all the domestic cheeses are profitable while the imported cheeses are unpopular. What's more, the arguer should give more information about the subscribers of the Cheeses of the World rather than relying on this slim information.

[ 本帖最后由 571633 于 2007-8-8 20:58 编辑 ]