#24 - The makers of Activite, a natural dietary supplement,

[quan-tang@hotmail.com]

I did not choose D because the stem says 'what it costs them to pack and ship their product.' but not what the product worth.

If the product worth 5000 dollars, but the cost of packaging and shipping is only 50 cents and they charged handling fee of 3 dollars, it is still considerably higher but not really explained anything.

[Paul Popa]

Hi Quan,

That's an excellent point! Drugs often times cost a fortune to develop before they ever reach the market, so it's not a stretch to presume that supplements are similar. I don't think a single supplement is worth $5,000, but let's go ahead and say that they're in debt $5,000 from producing the supplement and creating their first batch. If it costs them $0.50 to pack and ship the product but they charge a handling fee of $3, they are earning money on each transaction. Keep doing this with enough customers and they'll eventually pay off their debt and start earning a profit, and that's not even including when the free trial is over and they start charging full price for the supplement.

The crux of the author concluding that Amirite must be effective is because it's not in the company's interest to have this offer. But if they're actually making money on each offer, we see that it is in their interest to have it, therefore this is not good evidence to believe that Amirite is effective. Hope this helps!

[AmyK33]

I’m confused as to how we are supposed to assume new customers = shipping product? What if 90% of their sales is from vitamin stores and 10% is online?

Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

I don't think you have to assume that, AmyK33. All you have to do is recognize that if that's true, then it undermines the premise that if it were not an effective product, the offer would not be in the company's interest. If it's possible that they might make a profit even on a "free" product, then there is at least some reason to doubt that claim, and therefore doubt the conclusion based on that claim.

Could some customers get the product for free in a store? Maybe. In those cases, would the customer, or the store owner, pay the handling fee? Maybe, maybe not. But if it's possible that somebody would have to pay that fee, and the company thereby made a little profit, that weakens the argument.

More important, though, is that none of the other answers do anything at all to weaken the argument, so if this does so just a little bit, that's still the answer that does the most to weaken the argument. It doesn't need to destroy the argument or disprove the conclusion; it only needs to do more damage than any of the others. By that standard, answer D is a clear winner.

[AmyK33]

Ok I see. Thank you!