The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of movie-rental stores.
"In order to stop the recent decline in our profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten movie-rental stores. Since we are famous for our special bargains, raising our rental prices is not a viable way to improve profits. Last month our store in downtown Marston significantly decreased its operating expenses by closing at 6:00 P.M. rather than 9:00 P.M. and by reducing its stock by eliminating all movies released more than five years ago. By implementing similar changes in our other stores, Movies Galore can increase profits without jeopardizing our reputation for offering great movies at low prices."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The memorandum presented tries to base its recommendation to increase Movies Galore’s profits on a series of observations and inferences made from them. However, many questions are left unanswered which would be required to properly evaluate the suggestion.
First, the owner suggests that decline in profits can be reversed by reducing operating costs at the chain’s ten rental stores. The original reason for decline in profits isn’t mentioned. Was it higher operating costs or some other reason? Perhaps people increasingly prefer going to the cinemas instead of renting movies or perhaps the usage of online streaming services has increased. Reducing the operating costs in such cases would do very little to help profit as business would continue to go down due to a change in people’s preferences. However, if the decline is in fact dependent on the rising operating costs, it would be wise to dig deeper in the sources of these recent increases and act on them.
Additionally, the owner mentions reducing the costs at ten of their stores. The details of the total number of stores, their sales trends and the reason for selecting only these ten stores are needed to determine if it is sensible to focus on only these stores. If in fact Movies Galore has more stores, the reason behind other stores being able to maintain their profits may be helpful in determining useful recommendations for other stores.
Second, the owner dismisses the idea of increasing rentals, as special bargains are Movies Galore’s key selling point. The reference point for Movies Galore’s prices attaining the status of a bargain is missing. A comparison of rental prices with competitors is required to determine if an increase in rent is viable while still offering better prices than others. It is possible that other stores may have driven up costs due to various reasons, providing Movies Galore room to increase their own prices. However, if there is no considerable change in the offers from competitors, increasing rents may do more damage than good for the chain.
Finally, the memorandum mentions changes in operating costs at a particular store in downtown Marston. The reduction was brought about by closing the store earlier than regular hours and removing movies released more than five years ago. While this would bring down operating costs, it says nothing about the change in profits. The reduction in hours may bring in fewer visitors, possibly those who visit the store after work for a late night rental, consequently resulting in lower profits. Similarly, reduction in the stock may drive away old movie aficionados who’d look for other places which rent them. On the other hand, these changes may be beneficial if the historical trends suggest that the majority of visitors come before the new closing hours and a considerable number of them go for movies no older than five years. The true effect on the profits of the store is needed to evaluate the benefits of this proposition.
In conclusion, various questions need to be answered to evaluate the recommendation and therefore, increase the profitability of Movies Galore. Depending on the true reasons behind the decline and the effect of proposed changes, it may or may not be beneficial to implement similar changes in the proposed set of stores.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
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| 2019-10-26 | monalisa18 | 51 | view |
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| 2019-08-21 | Fabiano94 | 77 | view |
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 546 350
No. of Characters: 2717 1500
No. of Different Words: 256 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.834 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.976 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.622 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 212 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 145 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 58 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.84 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.401 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.64 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.285 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.483 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.1 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
consequently, finally, first, however, if, look, may, second, similarly, so, still, therefore, while, in conclusion, in fact, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 25.0 28.8173652695 87% => OK
Preposition: 78.0 55.5748502994 140% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2816.0 2260.96107784 125% => OK
No of words: 544.0 441.139720559 123% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17647058824 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.82947280553 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79356612204 2.78398813304 100% => OK
Unique words: 260.0 204.123752495 127% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.477941176471 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 879.3 705.55239521 125% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.8888455586 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 112.64 119.503703932 94% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.76 23.324526521 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.72 5.70786347227 100% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 17.0 8.20758483034 207% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.243987068174 0.218282227539 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0750619949039 0.0743258471296 101% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0540400960407 0.0701772020484 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.135852040271 0.128457276422 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.028858458702 0.0628817314937 46% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.76 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.63 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 136.0 98.500998004 138% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 12.3882235529 73% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.