CR - Broad Street Restaurant Suppliers decline in sales

[rohit.kumar.behera]

Source: GMAT HACKS Question of the Day (Date: 10th Dec 2013)

Company President: Last year, Broad Street Restaurant Suppliers switched from pen-and-paper order forms to an online process. Unexpectedly, this resulted in a decrease in orders placed by restaurants. Thus, it is likely that many restaurateurs lack the computer skills required by the online process and were more comfortable with the old forms.

Vice-President of Marketing: Not so. Statistics show a widespread decline in sales across the restaurant supply industry for last year.

Which of the following, if true, most undermines the Vice President of Marketing's response?

(A) The decline in sales across the restaurant supply industry affected the segment of the market that represents the largest part of Broad Street's business.
(B) The online process offered by Broad Street allows restaurateurs to better customize their purchases and specify more precise delivery schedules.
(C) Broad Street is known throughout the restaurant supply industry as a leader in customer service.
(D) Declines in sales across the restaurant supply industry usually stem from smaller average orders placed by each restaurant, but one-quarter of Broad Street's previous customers placed no order at all last year.
(E) Many restaurant supply companies have switched from pen-and-paper order forms to an online process.


My thinking goes this way -
To undermine the VP's argument, I thought the best way is to strengthen the Company President's argument. This was before I looked at the options and tried to predict an answer.
Option B talks about the pros of switching to online ordering, which I felt reinforces Company President's argument.
Option D also felt very close.

I would really appreciate an explanation and a 2 min GMAT strategy to answer this question. I shall reveal original answer after a few discussions.

Thanks,
Rohit

[RonPurewal]

Please read the forum rules. "Official answer after discussion" isn't how this forum works; you must post the official answer with the question. From now on, we can't answer questions without the correct answer indicated.

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The point about which the two people are arguing is why sales went down.
* The president thinks sales went down because people can't do the online thing.
* The VP of marketing thinks sales went down because sales went down for lots of restaurants anyway.

B has nothing to do with why sales went down, and so is irrelevant.

D says, in essence, "Things look completely unlike what you would see if the VP were right." So, that's evidence against the VP, which is exactly what the question is asking for.