Paradox

- A negative report on apples did not impact consumers. Consumers planned to keep their habits unchanged.
- Still, next month sales of apples in grocery stores fell sharply

This is odd, right? If consumers planned to buy same number of apples, why did the sales fall sharply?
We need something that can explain why sales fell even though consumers were willing to buy.

(A) In March, many grocers removed apples from their shelves in order to demonstrate concern about their customers' health.

So this tells us the reason March saw fall in sales. Grocers stopped selling apples. So even though people wanted to buy, they couldn't. Hence the sales fell. This explains our paradox.

(B) Because of a growing number of food-safety warnings, consumers in March were indifferent to such warnings.

This tells us why people ignored the negative report. That doesn't help us figure out why sales fell despite consumers interest remaining same.

(C) The report was delivered on television and also appeared in newspapers.

Irrelevant.

(D) The report did not mention that any other fruit contains Alar, although the preservative is used on other fruit.

Irrelevant

(E) Public health officials did not believe that apples posed a health threat because only minute traces of Alar were present in affected apples.

Again, doesn't explain why sales fell.

Answer (A)