PrepTest 144, Section 2, Question 11
By Brandon Beaver | Published October 29, 2024
Type: Paradox
Difficulty:
Explanations
We have a paradox on our hands.
Styron and Maxlast hammers sell “roughly equally well.” The Maxlast hammers go on sale and all the inventory gets put on display near the entrance. Styrons stayed put and didn’t go on sale. But after going on sale, Maxlast hammers were outsold by Styrons.
Our job is to figure out why.
I predicted, “What if people can’t find the Maxlast hammers in their new location near the entrance?”
This actually just happened at my local Walmart—they kept moving things around and it was hard to find our go-to brands. Super annoying.
Let’s see.
A
Yes! This would explain things. If people are checking out as they walk in the door and don’t see the Maxlast hammers, how are they going to buy them?
B
Nah. This actually makes matters worse. If a majority of customers come for quality over price, but the hammers sold equally well before the sale, then why are the discounted hammers suddenly selling worse than the list-priced hammers? This would be like choosing to buy a more expensive hammer of roughly equal quality despite it being on sale.
C
Nope. All we know from this is that some number of Maxlast buyers mentioned the sale. This doesn’t tell me anything about why Styrons are selling better despite the sale.
D
No way. This further complicates things too. Not only did we put things on sale, but we advertised the sale. Despite these efforts, Styrons sold better.
E
Nah. I'm sure this is true, and even so, it doesn’t help us understand why Styrons sold better than Maxlasts despite the sale.
Passage
A hardware store generally sells roughly equal numbers of Ma
Question 11
Which one of the following, if true, does most to explain th