Self-study
A hardware store generally sells roughly equal numbers of Maxlast brand hammers and Styron brand hammers. ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████████ █████ █████ █████ ███ █████████ █████████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did Styron hammers outsell Maxlast hammers at the hardware store last week, even though both brands usually sell equally, and Maxlast hammers were on sale and displayed at the store entrance last week, while Styron hammers stayed at their regular spot and price?
Objective
The correct answer will be a hypothesis that explains a key difference in customers’ interest in the hammer brands before and after last week’s changes. It must either result in customers being more likely to buy Styron hammers, or less likely to buy Maxlast hammers.
11.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████
a
For the first ███████ ███████ █████ ████████ █████ █ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████████
This explains the shift in customer interest in the hammer brands after last week's changes. Since customers don’t pay close attention in the first few seconds after entering a store, they were less likely to notice the Maxlast hammers displayed at the entrance.
b
Most of the ████████ ███████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████
Just because customers prefer quality over low prices doesn’t mean they see lower-priced items as lower quality. Also, we don’t know which hammer brand is higher quality, or if they’re the same quality. So, we still can’t explain why Styron hammers outsold Maxlast last week.
c
Customers who bought ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ █ ██████ ██ ████ █████
This makes the sale results even more surprising. If some customers bought Maxlast hammers because of the sale, why didn’t more customers do the same? We still don’t know why Styron hammers outsold Maxlast hammers during the week of the Maxlast sale.
d
The hardware store ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████
Again, this makes the sale results even more surprising. If the hardware store advertised the Maxlast sale, why did Styron hammers still outsell Maxlast hammers?
e
In general, a ██████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ █ ███████ ████ ██ █ ██████
Even if shoppers didn’t make a special trip to the hardware store to buy the discounted Maxlast hammers, it’s still surprising that Styron outsold Maxlast, especially because both brands usually sell equally.