The only way that bookstores can profitably sell books at below–market prices is to get the books at a discount from ...

Mehran on July 21, 2017

@fari97 this is not an argument. This is a set of facts.

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BennyB33 on June 27, 2022

@mehran can you help me with the strategy to tackle this question type? I picked E because I thought it told an instance that CANNOT happen. How to I get to the correct answer?

Emil-Kunkin on July 6, 2022

Hi Alex,

Our original statement is Not RE unless PW.

I like to approach an unless statement by replacing the unless with "if it is not the case"

That would then make our statement: Not RE if it is not the case that PW.

We can then diagram this as

If Not PW -> Not RE.

For an unless statement, we negate the sufficient condition.

Emil-Kunkin on July 6, 2022

Hi BennyB33, ignore the earlier response I mistakenly posted.

Questions where the question stem introduces a new condition like this are a bit weird. I would try to understand the passage as best as possible, and then focus on the additional condition.

The passage sets out the following:
If a bookshop profits from below market prices, it must get a discount.
To get a discount, it must have high volume.
To get high volume, they must cater to mass taste, or have a large specialized market.

To sum up, the only way a bookstore can sell below market prices profitably is if they do one of two things: cater to mass tastes or have a large specialized market.

The question asks about a bookshop that does not cater to mass tastes. So, we know that if this bookshop sells profitably at below market prices, it must have a large, specialized market.

That is, This cannot lack a large specialized market and profitably sell books at below market prices.

This is a good match for C. E actually could happen.