All of the following questions are relevant for the evaluation of the

QUESTION

All of the following questions are relevant for the evaluation of the claim above EXCEPT:

A) Is the number of All American Burger restaurants in City A similar to the number of All American Burger restaurants in City B?
B) Are there any All American Burger customers who would be very reluctant to try any new burger?
C) Was the Hawaiian Burger promoted more heavily than the Mexican Burger?
D) Are All American Burger’s overall sales similar in Cities A and B?
E) Was the price of the Hawaiian Burger similar to the price of the Mexican Burger?

ANSWER

Answer: B
Explanation: B) All the questions are important except Choice B, which gets at the issue of whether any new product would be successful but does not help in deciding whether patrons like burgers with pineapple slices more than burgers with jalapeno slices. Choice A is important because we are only told about the number of burgers sold and not the number sold per restaurant. If there were more restaurants in City A, then the greater sales of the Hawaiian Burger could be due to a greater number of opportunities to sell burgers as opposed to the popularity of pineapple slices. Choice C also points to an alternative explanation. If one burger was promoted more than the other, then sales could be due to promotion and not the burgers’ ingredients. Choice D is similar to Choice A in pointing to a potential alternative explanation. If overall sales were higher in City A, then it is harder to believe that higher sales of the Hawaiian Burger were due to pineapple slices. Choice E also gets at an alternative explanation. Perhaps consumers were reacting to price and not ingredients.