each month a retailer sells 100 identical items . on each item he makes a profit of $ 30 that constitutes 16 % of the item ' s price to the retailer . if the retailer contemplates giving a 5 % discount on the items he sells , what is the least number of items he will have to sell each month to justify the policy of the discount ?
for this question , we ' ll need the following formula : sell price = cost + profit we ' re told that the profit on 1 item is $ 20 and that this represents 16 % of the cost : sell price = cost + $ 20 sell price = $ 125 + $ 20 thus , the sell price is $ 145 for each item . selling all 100 items gives the retailer . . . 100 ( $ 20 ) = $ 2,000 of profit if the retailer offers a 5 % discount on the sell price , then the equation changes . . . 5 % ( 145 ) = $ 7.25 discount $ 137.75 = $ 125 + $ 12.75 now , the retailer makes a profit of just $ 12.75 per item sold . to earn $ 2,000 in profit , the retailer must sell . . . . $ 12.75 ( x ) = $ 2,000 x = 2,000 / 12.75 x = 156.8627 = 157 items a
divide(multiply(100, 30), subtract(30, divide(multiply(add(divide(multiply(100, 30), 16), 30), 5), 100)))