Many Large Department Stores in Montalia Now Provide Shopping Carts GMAT Critical Reasoning

Question: Many large department stores in Montalia now provide shopping carts for their customers. Since customers using shopping carts tend to buy more than those without shopping carts, most of these stores are experiencing strong sales growth, while most other department stores are not. Therefore, in order to boost sales, managers of Jerrod’s, Montalia’s premier department store, are planning to purchase shopping carts and make them available to the store’s customers next month.

Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt whether the managers’ plan, if implemented, will achieve its goal?

1. Since most customers associate shopping carts with low-quality discount stores, Jerrod’s high quality image would likely suffer if shopping carts were introduced.
2. Because the unemployment rate has declined to very low levels, Jerrod’s now has to pay significantly higher wages in order to retain its staff.
3. A number of department stores that did not make shopping carts available to their customers have had to close recently due to falling profits.
4. Shopping carts are not very expensive, but they generally need to be replaced every few years.
5. Stores that make shopping carts available to their customers usually have to hire people to retrieve the carts from parking areas.

‘Many large department stores in Montalia now provide shopping carts for their customers.’ – is a GMAT Critical question. To answer the question, a candidate can by either finding a piece of evidence that would weaken the argument or logical flaws in the argument. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates. This topic requires candidates to find the argument's strengths and weaknesses or the logical flaw in the argument. The GMAT CR section contains 10 -13 GMAT critical reasoning questions out of 36 GMAT verbal questions.

Answer: A

Explanation: The GMAT's critical reasoning part evaluates a candidate's logical and analytical abilities. To arrive at a logically sound response, the applicant must employ reasoning and deduction skills.
The managers’ plan- is to purchase shopping carts and make them available to the store’s customers next month.
We need to go through all five options to find the

Option A: Since most customers associate shopping carts with low-quality discount stores, Jerrod’s high quality image would likely suffer if shopping carts were introduced.

-Option A states that purchasing shopping carts would affect the quality image of Jerrod. This statement satisfies the argument as the Managers plan to purchase shopping carts. Hence option A is correct.

Option B: Because the unemployment rate has declined to very low levels, Jerrod’s now has to pay significantly higher wages in order to retain its staff.

-Option B implies that unemployment and having to pay higher wages to staff are out of the scope of the argument. This statement does not satisfy the argument. Hence option B is incorrect.

Option C: A number of department stores that did not make shopping carts available to their customers have had to close recently due to falling profits.

-Option C implies that department stores that did not have shopping carts had falling profits. This statement does not satisfy the argument as the managers’ plan of purchasing shopping carts. Hence option C is incorrect.

Option D: Shopping carts are not very expensive, but they generally need to be replaced every few years.

-Option D implies that to purchase shopping carts and make them available to the store’s customers next month. Hence option D is incorrect.

Option E: Stores that make shopping carts available to their customers usually have to hire people to retrieve the carts from parking areas.

-Option E is irrelevant.

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