Nature's Way, a chain of stores selling health food and other health-related products, is opening its next franchise in the town of Plainsville. The store should prove to be very successful: Nature's Way franchises tend to be most profitable in areas wher

The claim explained by the author arrives at the notion that Plainsville will profit by adding a Nature’s Way health food store to the cities location. The author states that this store will be very successful due to the healthy nature of Plainsville, and to prove this the author could have incorporated statistics about the health craze that exists within Plainsville. However, the author assumes that since both sales of running shoes and exercise clothing is at an all time high, this proves that the occupants of Plainsville are into health. One needs to ask a few questions to justify this point: What is an all time high of the sales of running shoes and exercise clothing? If last year Plainsville stores sold 30 running shoes and 30 pairs of exercise clothes would sales higher in comparison result in a healthy population? Probably not. Therefore, there it is impossible to conclude that Plainsville is healthy based on potentially bogus sales comparisons.

Secondly, the author goes on to say that the Plainsville weight training and aerobic classes have more members than ever, but one can implement the same point explained above. What are we basing this number on? If only a few members attended the classes years before, the attendance would be pretty simple to overcome in the current year. There is not a way to know the population of Plainsville from the current claim, so it is impossible to try to find a percentage of people who work out in the town. Furthermore, the author then states that since children are required to participate in a fitness-for-life program, those children will be future potential customers of the health food store. Just because children participate in this program does not mean that they will enjoy working out and want to buy the food that Nature’s Way provides. This is a causation fallacy and there is no proof of the claim that the author is attempting to provide.

Consequently, if the author gave statistics of how many people attended the weight lifting and aerobic classes, this might substantiate a part of his or her claim. In addition to know the amount of people buying running shoes and exercise clothes would also help the author in his point. Lastly, to incorporate an informative survey among the children in the exercise program at school about the children’s enjoyment of exercising has a potential of proving them to be potential consumers of the Nature’s Way health food store. Ultimately, the author makes a good point, but the point is invalidated due to the several fallacies found within the claim.