A certain retailer promotes merchandise by using the following policy:At all times there is either a "manager's sale"...

Isaiah-Klassen August 29, 2020

Wording of the First Premise

The first premise states: “At all times there is either a "manager's sale" or a "holiday sale" or both going on.” The entire answer explanation seems to be based on this either/or statement, but it fails to recognize the “or both” following the either/or statement within the first premise. From my understanding this means that it can be both a manager’s sale and a holiday sale within the same month. Is there something I’m missing here?

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Zella September 3, 2020

This is my question too. I have a problem with the correct answer because it ignores the fact that there can simultaneously be a manager and holiday sale occurring.

Victoria September 17, 2020

Hi @Isaiah-Klassen and @Zella,

Happy to help!

You are both correct in that there can be either a manager's sale or a holiday sale or both in any given month.

Ignoring, for the moment, the fact that both can occur in any given month, the phrase "either/or" means that at least one of the sales must be occurring in any given month. When diagramming either/or statements, there are two steps:

1) Pick a variable and make it the necessary condition.
2) Negate the other variable and make it the sufficient condition.

Not manager's sale --> Holiday sale
Not holiday sale --> Manager's sale

This means that there are three possibilities for any given month:

1) It is not a manager's sale. Therefore, it must be a holiday sale.
2) It is not a holiday sale. Therefore, it must be a manager's sale.
3) It is both a holiday sale and a manager's sale.

The only impossibility here is that there is neither a manager's sale nor a holiday sale in a given month.

The question stem asks us to select the answer choice which can be concluded from the passage. Therefore, we are looking for the answer choice which must be true. We are not necessarily looking for the answer choice which encompasses all possibilities; we just need to select the answer choice which must be true based on the information we are provided by the stimulus.

Answer choice (D) is correct because it directly restates our S&N diagram above: Not manager's sale --> Holiday sale.

It is still entirely possible that there can be months where both sales are run. However, it must be true that, if there is a month where no manager's sale is run, then there must be a holiday sale.

Hope this helps clear things up! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

abe1 February 4, 2021

hey, this question is really beating me up. At the end of the passage "However, there is no holiday that falls within the month of August and, in that month, the warehouse never contains excess merchandise" made me think that there must be a manager's sale in august because there isn't a holiday sale. Why is that not right?

abe1 February 4, 2021

Never mind, I reread your post and it makes a lot sense. Thanks for the help.