CR question doubt: Clothing Company Y distributes clothing

[VP]

Clothing Company Y distributes clothing samples free to buyers at large department stores. Based on the quality and attractiveness of the samples, the buyers determine which of Clothing Company Y's items will be sold by the department stores that they represent. Discounter X purchases these clothing samples from the buyers, then sells the samples to the public at a price lower than retail. This motivates consumers to buy clothing from Discounter X rather than from the department stores that sell Clothing Company Y's clothing, resulting in lower profits for Clothing Company Y.

Based on the information above, Clothing Company Y could most effectively raise profits by

A) distributing fewer clothing samples to department store buyers
B) distributing samples exclusively in sizes considerably smaller than those of clothing that they produce for retail sale
C) distributing clothing samples only of styles that they think will not be popular among consumers
D) distributing samples of deliberately poorer quality than that of clothing that they produce for retail sale
E) distributing clothing samples only to a small group of department store buyers

OA:B.



I feel D is much better answer than B, since there may be some customers who can still by smaller size clothes for their young ones. But no customer will prefer to buy deliberately poorer quality stuff. So, D should be the answer. Whats say ?

Got this question from Princeton review online material.

thanks

~VP

[JonathanSchneider]

Interesting point about children. However, if the company were to give out samples of low quality, then how would the buyers know that the materials they will actually get will be of good quality? As a result, D is out. B is the best remaining choice. Company Y needs to show good materials to the buyers, but they need to make sure that material is not later resold. A better option still might be to have the buyers return the material, etc., but since that is not an option, B is best.