LR Question 17 Explanation, by LSATHacks
QUESTION TEXT: In order to save money, many consumers redeem coupons…
QUESTION TYPE: Must Be True
FACTS:
- Stores that distribute coupons often have higher average prices, even after coupon discounts.
- Stores that use coupons raise their average prices to pay for the high costs of issuing coupons.
ANALYSIS: Some stores use coupons as bait.You can get savings on a few items by using coupons. But all other items are more expensive.
So you’re lured into the store by the promise of paying $2 less for pizza. You do save on pizza, but then you pay more for milk, bread and beef if you buy those items without coupons.
That’s because the store’s average prices are higher, to make up for the cost of printing coupons. It’s hard to say whether coupon users save money overall. They might only buy discounted items, and buy everything else at cheaper stores. However, if a consumer doesn’t use coupons at these stores, they will pay more at this store.
___________
- This sounds tempting. But maybe most consumers who use coupons are smart about it, and shop for non-couponed items at another store. They will save money on couponed items.
- CORRECT. The final sentence shows that this is true. Stores pass expenses on to consumer. How do they do this? By raising the average price in their store. By the way, it’s perfectly acceptable for ‘certain products’ to mean ‘most products’. We wouldn’t normally say that, but it’s accurate.
- We don’t know. There are many factors that affects profits. Stores might introduce coupons because profits are low.
- We’re told nothing about non-coupon stores, except that they have lower average prices. They might still pass on some costs.
- The stimulus says that prices will be higher on average. That doesn’t mean that every single item is higher priced. Coupon items could be reasonably priced, even without coupons. Then other items would be priced far above average, making the overall average increase fairly small.
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The difficulty to me comes from the fact that the coupon is for an item that has had the price increased. The explanation you give assumes that OTHER products have been marked up. Nowhere in the passage does it say that OTHER products have been marked up. It could be that only the ones with a coupon, had their price increased prior to making a coupon. Anyway, to me, the soft language of answer B ( generally) plus the ” certain products” is an indication for correct answer of a MBT question. “Certain” would match my understanding that ” the products that are being discounted are in fact the ones that have been marked up”=> certain and/ or maybe some other ones too. Does this make sense?
You raise a good point, but I’m not sure it matters which products have higher prices. The argument is somewhat ambiguous: are higher prices on the products with coupons, or on other products?
The right answer just says “certain products” and that could refer to either. So it actually doesn’t matter how you resolve the question. One way or another, some sort of product at these retailers is higher priced. Certain covers that.
Why wouldn’t we normally say “certain products” means “most products”?
By the way, it’s perfectly acceptable for ‘certain products’ to mean ‘most products’. We wouldn’t normally say that, but it’s accurate.
Hi Meredith,
Normally (as in outside of the LSAT), when someone says “certain,” they simply don’t mean “most.” If a store had a sale on most products, they’d never advertise it as “certain products on sale!” This is not the literal meaning, just the way the word tends to be used in normal conversation.
Hope that helps!