Large discount chains can make a profit even while offering low prices, because they buy goods in large quantities at favorable cost. ████ ███████ █ ███████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ██████ █████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████ █████████ ███ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███████████ ████████ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ █████ ███████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ █████ █████ ██ ██████████████
The author concludes that small retailers competing with large discount chains must offer exceptional service in order to retain profitability. She supports with a conditional claim: if small retailers offer exceptional service, then they can keep their customers without lowering prices.
This is the flaw of mistaking sufficiency for necessity. The author treats “offering exceptional service” as necessary for “retaining profitability.” But according to her premise, “offering exceptional service” is sufficient, not necessary.
In other words, her reasoning is flawed because it fails to take into account the possibility that small retailers may be able to retain their profitability by some other means.
Note that the author assumes that “retaining profitability” either leads to or else is the same as “retaining their customer base...”
The reasoning is flawed because ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████
not all large ████████ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ████ █ ██████
some large discount ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ █████ █████████
small retailers are █████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████
not all small █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ██████
exceptional service is ███ ███ ████ ██████ █████████ ██████ █████ ██████ ██████