The following appeared in a memo from the business manager 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

The memo given by the business manager of the chain of cheese stores proffers to discontinue stocking of the varieties of imported cheeese and concentrate solely on the sale of domestic cheese. The manager has arrived at this decision based on the best-selling domestic cheddar cheese noted to gain popularity in the recently introduced cheese stores. However, the argument relies on many unstated assumptions and the argument cannot be taken for granted unless these assumptions are validated with proper evidence. Thorough analysis of the assumptions is mandatory to evaluate the concerned argument.

The manager quotes that the stores in his chain have stocked a wide variety of domestic and imported cheese. It assumes that both of the varieties are equally significant in number and distributed evenly thoroughout all its stores. However, the particular distribution of each type of cheese in each of the stores is mandatory to arrive at a clear-cut picture of the prevailing scenario in cheese stores. It is almost impossible to judge the level of distribution of cheeses just by the term "wide variety". Hence it has to be quantified to get a clear understanding.

Next, the manager assumes that the five-best selling domestic cheddar cheeses in Wisconsin had no tough competition with other types of cheese. For instance, if any other kind of imported cheese just falls second to the sales of this cheddar cheese, then it cannot be neglected and there is a huge possibility that it will surpass the current popularity of cheddar cheeses. Thus, a comparison needs to be established to prove without doubt that the five-best selling domestic cheddar cheeses deserve their position. If this fact is not proven, then it is impossible to assume that Cheddar cheeses of this type will ensure high sales.

The manager quotes the results of survey conducted by the World Magazine. This survey particularly indictates the preference of the subscribers towards domestic cheese. It does not however guarantee that the subscribers will buy this type of cheese. Hence the price levels of the domestic cheese must be proved to be affordable for the subscribers to opt for this type of cheese. And the group interviewed by the survey must be established. Only if the survey interviews a wide variety of population, can we come to a conclusion regarding the validity of the survey.

Finally, the manager is keen on reducing expenses by bringing to control, the inventories of the company. Hence he suggests discontinuing stocking of many varieties of imported cheese. But, the manager has initially quoted that the imported cheese has been stocked for many years together. Therfore, to determine whether the imported cheese can be discontinued, without incurring huge losses is a question. Moreover, it is not established that the domestic cheese will sell in the desired manner. Consequently, it is preposterous to come to a conclusion that profit of the stores will be magnified to a great extent.

Above all, the popularity of some of the domestic varieties of cheese is noted only in the newly introduced stores. This leads to the doubt whether the same level of popularity for the domestic variety will be achieved when introduced in all of the existing cheese stores. The huge profits in one of the stores is correlated with similar kind of profits in other stores. It assumes the same nature of stores, the income of customers, the favorable location of the stores to be applicable for all of the stores. These have to be established with proper evidence.

Thus the argument put forward by the manager rests on lots of stated and unstated assumptions like: wide variety of two types of cheese to be equally distributed in all of the stores, the validity of the survey, the affordable price levels of the domestic Cheddar cheese, no losses incurred on discontinuing imported cheese, the same level of popularity to be achieved in all of the cheese stores as observed in the newly introduced stores. These assumptions have to be substantiated with proper evidence. Otherwise, the suggestions put forward by the manager will turn out to be futile and serve no purpose. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to delve into the intricacies of the argument and solve the contradictions before considering the manager's suggestions in the memo for implementation.