argument14【challenge yourself小组】第六次作业

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argument14【challenge yourself小组】第六次作业
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."

提纲：
1，  以全概偏，全国性调查不能说明当地居民不满于蔬菜质量。很有可能因为地处郊区所以蔬菜的供应更及时更新鲜。就算当地人也对蔬菜质量不满也不能说明人们就会选择自己种蔬菜吃
2，  当地园艺杂志卖得快有很多原因，可能是因为发行量小，而且杂志的内容是什么不知道不足以说明人们对种蔬菜的兴趣。
3，  就算当地人有兴趣种蔬菜，增加供应品种不一定能增加盈利，还要考虑到成本等问题

In the argument, the author recommends that the Green Thumb Gardening Center (GTGC) should expand the variety of vegetable seeds stocked to increase the profit, because the consumers are more and more interested in growing their own vegetables. To illustrate the point, the author cites the result of a national survey and the local sale amount of a gardening magazine. However, the argument suffers from some logical fallacies, which undermine the credibility of the argument.

First of all, the national survey showing the trends that consumers were dissatisfied with the quality of fresh vegetables available in supermarkets does not necessarily apply to the local consumers’ attitude. Perhaps, the local vegetable supplying is fresher and of better quality than other cities, because the town is in the suburban district and approaches to the vegetable supply sources and local residents are satisfied with the vegetable in the supermarket. Even if the consumers in the town are not satisfied with the vegetable available in the supermarket either, there is no evidence that the residents have to grow vegetable by themselves. They can also buy vegetable form the green groceries or other supplier. Thus the nationwide trends that the argument cites amount to scant evidence the local consumers tend to be interested in growing vegetable.

Secondly, the argument assumes that the gardening magazine Great Gardens (GG) has sold out at the Village News stand three months in a row would necessarily and sufficiently proves that the local residents would like to grow vegetable without substantiating this assumption. The author fails to provide the information about the purpose and the content about the magazine, maybe the contents are mainly about beatification of garden or how to plant flowers, having nothing to do with vegetable. Even though the gardening magazine is about planting vegetable and sold out three months in row locally, it is possible that the magazine’s circulation is too small in the suburban town and cannot satisfy the basic needs. Thus, more information about the content and circulation of the magazine might also be required for the reliability of the assumption.

Finally, admittedly the local residents are interested in growing vegetable and demand more seeds than before; it is not persuasive to assert that expanding the variety of seeds will increase the profits without surveying the preference of local people and considering the expense. Perhaps the local people prefer certain kinds of vegetables and do not want to change their tastes, so it is not necessary to store various seeds. The author merely accounts the revenue but fails to take the expense of purchasing and storing the seeds into consideration, it cannot convince me that the profits will increase.

To sum up, the argument is not persuasive enough to convince me. To strengthen it, the author should provide more statistics about the interest in growing vegetable and preference of local consumers and the content of the magazine before drawing conclusion.