Argument65 0710G同主题写作第6期

coalaxixiUID: 2353397

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."

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Giving some postulations and the result of a recent survey, he arguer recommends stopping stocking many of their varieties of imported cheese and concentrate primarily on domestic cheeses in order to improve profits. It really seems sound at first glance; however, I find this argument specious on several grounds.

First of all, the mere fact that the five best-selling cheeses at the newest store were all domestic cheeses proves nothing about the popularity of domestic cheeses let alone the overall popularity throughout the country. There are a lot of causes of such situation. Perhaps the sale situation last year is just an aberration and in other year of the past, the sales imported cheeses always performed better. In an extreme case, if the newest store only sold domestic cheeses, then obviously the five best-selling sales would be no escaping the domestic ones. Or maybe the newest store locates in Wisconsin and the local people preferred to cheeses produced by local factories as to support the local economy. Either scenario would offer an alternative explanation for the good sales of domestic cheese in the newest store but not necessarily the popularity of domestic cheese. Furthermore, conceding the popularity of domestic cheese in Wisconsin, it doest not means the same success national wide. Lacking evidence that popularity in Wisconsin reflects the general tendency, the arguer’s claim is dubious.

Next, the survey cited by the arguer is questionable. As a common sense, a reliable result comes from such a study directly by authorities in a scientific way. As part of the request, the subjects who are studied should not only be representative enough for the whole situation but also should be in a large number. Since all the factors are not mentioned at all in this argument, to cite and believe in the statistics of the study is nothing but a reckless and irresponsible decision. Besides, increasing preference is a vague saying. It does not indicate that people would buy domestic cheeses. Perhaps even though they like domestic one more, they would prefer to buy imported ones due to the comparably cheaper price. If this is the case, the result of the survey is week.

What's more, even assuming domestic cheeses are in fact popular, the conclusion of discontinuing stocking many of the imported cheese is open to doubt. There is no evidence showing that we should do so. Perhaps the popularity of domestic cheeses does no influence about the imported cheeses especially considering the customer’s loyalty, and the imported cheeses are more popular than the domestic ones as usual. Thus the arguer’s suggestion is presumptuous.

Therefore, this argument is well-presented, but not thoroughly well-reasoned. All the issues mentioned above should be taken into account.

[ 本帖最后由 coalaxixi 于 2007-8-15 19:52 编辑 ]