Q9 - If the sales figures cited by the accountant....

[loveleenzoria]

If the sales figures cited by the accountant and the sales manager are both accurate, which one of the following must be true?

Could you please explain the reasoning for why A is correct? A states: The company opened at least one new restaurant in the last two years.

Is A correct because even though there is a trend toward fewer sales according to the Accountant, the one new restaurant could be responsible for the total number of meals being higher than the year before due to the new restaurant being opened?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

You've got it! This one plays on numbers and percentages. The sales manager states that the total number of meals sold by the company's restaurants increased last year compared to the year before - the amount went up.

But the accountant points out that on an individual basis, the number of meals sold at each restaurant went down - the average went down.

How could the total amount of meals go up, and yet the average number of meals per restaurant go down? You need to have more restaurants - best expressed in answer choice (A).

Incorrect Answers
(B) could be false. Competitive at what? Price? Quality? While being less competitive at something might explain why average restaurant sales went down, it definitely does not have to be true.
(C) again, seeks to explain why the average restaurant sales fell, but does not have to be true.
(D) offers another possible explanation, and again, does not have to be true.
(E) could be false. The overall size of the market could have fallen or even remained the same. If the company's restaurants sold more meals overall, they're market share could have actually grown.

[lorraineogan]

I don't know this is a why a MUST be true. I interpret it as a could be true option.

The accountant states that they have sales figures on x amount of restaurants. I think it's a leap of logic to infer that there must have been a new restaurant, because maybe they only figures for, suppose 75% of total restaurants. That would mean that no new restaurants opened, they just didn't get sales figures from every restaurant in existence.

This question is not that good to me.

[seychelles1718]

So is A really saying the company opened at lease one new restaurant LAST YEAR? (the answer choice A says in the last two years) This way the total number of meals could increase while the number of meals sold at each restaurant decreased...

[maryadkins]

Yes. We only need it to have opened a new restaurant last year because that's the year the Sales Manager is talking about compared to the year before. But if it was opened within the last year, it was definitely opened within the last two (you can't have it open last year and not include that as having opened within the last two). So (A) must be true.

[adisadeliovsky]

I too have an issue with this question, the stimulus specifically states that only a certain amount of restaurants have sale figures that allow for a comparison between last year and the year before.... how can one infer that there were at least one new restaurant opened in the last two years, if there are no sale figures for that specific restaurant?