The following appeared in a memo from the owner 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, all of the

In order to reduce expenditures and increase proceeds the owner of a chain of cheese stores suggests discontinuing stocking imported cheese in all its stores via the USA. This conclusion is based on evidence which should be carefully scrutinized in order to give a comprehensive estimation of the soundness of the argument.

First evidence which is given to us is that all five best-selling cheeses at newest store were domestic cheddar cheeses from Wisconsin. However, is it reasonable to extrapolate the experience of this particular store on all stores of the chain? Probably public of the town where this store is located have unique preferences and thus usage of this specific example on all stores is dubious.

The second evidence is that Cheeses of the World magazine has carried out a survey which displays an increase preference for domestic cheeses among its readers. However, this statement has an ambiguous wording. In fact, to be able to thoughtfully evaluate the increase we need to know the initial percent of the subscribers who like domestic cheeses. If it is a small number, the increase cannot significantly impact on the popularity of the cheese. Moreover, even if a majority of subscribers prefer domestic cheeses over imported ones, we have no evidence that these subscribers are customers of the store chain. In other words, the opinion of Cheeses of the World magazine may not be relevant to preferences of purchasers of the chain and thus author’s usage of the data is equivocal.

Finally, the argument claims that stopping stocking foreign cheeses throughout the United States is the best way to improve profits. At the same time, this idea seems to be highly questionable. Firstly, the arguer does not manage to prove his belief that domestic cheeses are popular amount clients of the all stores of the chain. But even if domestic cheeses are popular, the sales of imported cheeses should bring a part of profits and thus if the stores of the chain do not sell them, the profits will decrease. The chain may lose a part of its customers and consequently income. Therefore, it is unlikely to be the best way to improve chain’s profits.

In conclusion, the argument states that discontinue stocking many of kinds of imported cheese and focusing on domestic ones is the best way to increase profits; unfortunately, he does not manage to prove that domestic cheeses are popular amount chain's buyers; moreover, the idea that absence of cheeses which bring a part of profits is the best way to enhance proceeds is questionable and perhaps unreasonable