Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT8 S1 Q9 Explanation

Complaints that milk bottlers take

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsMust be True

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Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Stimulus

Complaints that milk bottlers take enormous markups on the bottled milk sold to consumers are most likely to arise when least warranted by the actual spread between the price that bottlers pay for raw milk and the price at which they sell bottled milk. The complaints occur when the bottled-milk price rises, proportionate to the retail price. When the raw-milk price is falling, however, the markups are greatest.

What this question is testing

Must be True

Stimulus

This is a "Must Be True" question. The stimulus is a list of facts about milk pricing, not an argument. The author is not trying to prove anything — they are just laying out information and asking what we can conclude from it.

Evaluate

Here is the key fact to focus on: when raw-milk prices fall, the bottlers' markup gets bigger. Markup is just retail price minus what bottlers paid for raw milk. So if their cost is going down but the gap is getting wider, what does that tell us?

It tells us the retail price is not falling as quickly as the cost is. The bottlers are slow to drop their prices when raw milk gets cheaper. They hold the retail price high for a while, and that is what widens the markup.

Think of it this way: imagine a coffee shop pays $2 per cup of beans and charges $5. Markup: $3. Now bean costs drop to $1 — but the shop still charges $5. Markup: $4. The markup grew because the shop did not pass the savings along quickly.

Goal

Find the answer that captures this — bottlers do not promptly lower retail prices when raw-milk prices fall.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
9.

If all of the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true on

Answer choices

  1. Unsupported18% picked this

    Consumers pay more for bottled milk when raw-milk prices are falling than when these

    This claims consumers pay more in absolute terms when raw-milk prices are falling than when they are rising. The stimulus only tells us about markups (the proportional gap between cost and retail), not absolute price levels. When raw-milk is falling, retail might still be lower than it was when raw-milk was high — just not lowering as fast as cost is falling. The markup grows even as both cost and retail decline. This goes beyond what the facts support.

  2. Contradicted4% picked this

    Increases in dairy farmers’ cost of producing milk are generally not passed

    This says cost increases for dairy farmers are generally not passed on to consumers. But the stimulus directly contradicts that: bottled-milk price increases "most often merely reflect the rising price of the raw milk that bottlers buy from dairy farmers." Rising farmer/raw-milk costs are passed on. This answer flips the stimulus.

  3. Unsupported12% picked this

    Milk bottlers take substantially greater markups on bottled milk when its price is low for an extended period than when it is

    This answer is about what happens when the bottled-milk price is low or high for an extended period. The stimulus tells us about markups when the raw-milk price is rising or falling — not about extended periods of high or low retail. The answer swaps in a different variable (retail price level over time) for the one the stimulus actually discusses (raw-milk price direction). Not supported.

  4. Correct49% picked this

    Milk bottlers generally do not respond to a decrease in raw-milk prices by straightaway proportionately lowering the price of

    Why this is right

    This is the inference. The stimulus says markups (retail minus raw-milk cost) are greatest when raw-milk prices are falling. For a markup to grow while cost is dropping, retail price must not be dropping in step with cost. So bottlers do not respond to a raw-milk price decrease by quickly and proportionately lowering retail. This must be true given the facts.

    Skill tested: Must be True · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  5. Out of Scope17% picked this

    Consumers tend to complain more about the price they pay for bottled milk when dairy farmers are

    The stimulus mentions complaints, raw-milk prices, retail prices, and markups — but says nothing about dairy farmers' profits. We have no information linking the raw-milk price farmers receive to their costs of production, so we cannot tell when farmer profits are smallest. The answer brings in a variable the stimulus does not discuss.

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