#9 - Sales manager: Last year the total number of meals sold

[Legalistic]

I'm having some trouble with this question.

Why is the correct answer A? when the stimulus explicitly states, (for the accountant) that the # of meals sold actually decreased substantially at every one of our restaurants that was in operation both last year and the year before.

How can we infer the the company opened at least one new restaurant in the last two years when the accountant takes into account "every one of our restaurants that was in operation..." Isn't the new restaurant in operation and included in the stats of the accountant already then?

I'm not even sure this makes sense?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Legalistic,

Great question!

The confusion I think you may be having is that you might be reading answer choice A as referring ONLY to a new restaurant that was opened two years ago. For such a restaurant, you're right that it would be included in the Accountant's statistics. But answer choice A, as worded, can also refer to new restaurants that were just opened last year. It's a broadly worded answer choice that would include BOTH new restaurants opened two years ago, AND new restaurants opened last year.

In order for both the Accountant's statistics (that in every restaurant open for both of the past two years there was a "number of meals" decline) AND the Sales manager's statistics (that the overall total number of meals sold by the company last year was higher than two years ago) to be true, there HAD to be a new restaurant opened last year (that was not open two years ago), to provide that overall bump in company sales the Sales manager refers to. Answer choice A includes reference to such a restaurant, and thus has to be true.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy