Arguement117

kobestrongUID：2117374

Argument 117
The following is a memo from the business manager of Valu-Mart stores.
"Over 70 percent of the respondents to a recent survey reported that they are required to take more work home with them from the workplace than they were in the past. Since Valu-Mart has not seen impressive sales in its office-supply departments in the past, we should take advantage of this work-at-home trend by increasing at all Valu-Mart stores the stock of home office machines such as printers, small copy machines, paper shredders, and fax machines. We will also increase stock of office supplies such as paper, pens, and staplers. With these changes, our office-supply departments will become the most profitable component of our stores."


  In this argument, the manager of Valu-Marte concludes that in order to make the office-supply departments became the most profitable component of the stores, the stores should increase stock of home office machines and office supplies, which is on the basis of a survey which reported the respondents are required to take more work home than in the past. In my view, this conclusion does not hold water.

  Firstly, the manager does not supply enough evidences to convince us that the participants in the survey are representative. What is the specific number of the participants in the survey? What are the locations of these participants living in? What are their careers? Perhaps the number is very small, or perhaps most of the participants live in areas that are so far away from the store that they could buy these supplies in a nearby store, or perhaps their careers do not require them using such supplies at all. Given these possible scenarios, the fact that over 70 percent respondents reported their work-at-home proves nothing about the necessity of increasing stock of office supplies.

  Secondly, there are few clues indicating that the increase of stock of office supplies will, at the same time, bring about the increase of profits. The qualities, sorts and prices are all the factors that may affect the sale of the goods. Maybe due to the poor quality, or few sorts, or high price, the customs would choose other stores. Besides, if the cost of these stocks is higher than the income from them at last, the store will be at a loss.

  Thirdly, the durative of the work-at-home trend is not clear. Perhaps under the complaining of the workers, the employer may stop requiring the employees take work home, and then there is no necessity of purchasing these office appliances.

  Finally, even if the manager can substantiate all of the foregoing assumptions, the manager’s assumption that with the increase of the stocks, the office-supplies apartment will become the most profitable component of the stores is still unwarranted. The manager does not provide any information about other components of the stores, so we cannot come to the conclusion that other components would be less profitable than the office-supplies component.

  To sum up, the manager’s conclusion is ill-grounded, and we need more convincing evidences and information to evaluate the argument.

[ Last edited by staralways on 2005-7-28 at 15:04 ]

supermaryUID：2110481

从来没有上传过修改过的文章，只要发附件了。
怎么能在正文里直接显示“修改”后的模样啊？

我的117
https://bbs.gter.net/viewthre ... &extra=page%3D1

kobestrongUID：2117374

Originally posted by supermary at 2005-7-28 16:51
从来没有上传过修改过的文章，只要发附件了。
怎么能在正文里直接显示“修改”后的模样啊？

我的117
https://bbs.gter.net/viewthre ... &extra=page%3D1

点预览就可以了!  谢谢~马上去看看你的!