"Surprising" Phenomenon
Despite only buying items at a 50%+ discount, the list-less shoppers spent much more money than the shoppers with lists.
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains why the shoppers without lists spent so much more than the shoppers with lists, despite only buying discount items. The explanation will likely address how many items the respective groups bought, or else the average price the respective groups spent on an item.
A
Only the shoppers who used a list used a shopping cart.
This almost undermines the stimulus. A shopping cart would help shoppers carry more items. For the list-less shoppers to spend more money, they likely bought more items. This doesn’t help.
B
The shoppers who did not use lists bought many unnecessary items.
Even if they bought unnecessary items, we don’t know how many total items the list-less shoppers bought relative to the shoppers with lists. This doesn’t give us enough information to resolve the paradox.
C
Usually, only the most expensive items go on sale in grocery stores.
Those 50% off items were air fryers and high-quality steaks. Sure, the list-less shoppers were getting discounts. But they were splurging on expensive items, hence why they spent more than the shoppers with lists.
D
The grocery store in the study carries many expensive items that few other grocery stores carry.
Even if this is true, we don’t know if those expensive items were on sale and subsequently purchased by the list-less shoppers.
E
The grocery store in the study places relatively few items on sale.
If this is the case, then why did the list-less shoppers spend so much more than the others? If anything, this deepens the paradox.