Is a
Percent a Percent?
Introduction
In today’s world, you are often confronted with advertisements for
percent-off sales. In this project, you will explore various coupons offered by
a retailer and determine how to save the most money on your purchases. Be
prepared to become an expert coupon shopper!
Task
Working together with your group, you will explore the best way to
purchase items from a sporting goods store. Based on what you have learned,
you will go on a shopping spree to purchase the most goods with a limited
amount of money. Finally, you will analyze your shopping to help the storeowner
figure out the best way to price his or her products.
Instructions
Solve each problem in order and save your work as you progress as you
will create a professional presentation at the conclusion of the project.
1.
First problem:
·
You will be
making several purchases at a sporting goods store. You can use an
advertisement flyer from a store, make a trip to a local sporting store, or
shop online. You will need to have prices for at least six products with at
least one or two higher priced items in the range of between $200 - $500.
Record the relevant information in the chart below.
·
You were mailed
a coupon for 20% off your purchases. Before you leave home, you want to make
sure that you know the discounted price. Select two items from your price list
and calculate the discounted price.
[Hint: 20% off is the same as paying for 80% of cost of the
merchandise.]
·
You go to the
local store to purchase your equipment and notice a sign at the front of the
store stating that you can receive an additional 10% off all store items. When
you checkout, you present your 20% off coupon and the store clerk states that
both discounts can be used together. Select the same two items as before and
calculate the new discounted price.
·
For the two
items, use the new discounted price to calculate the actual percentage off that
you received.
[Hint: First calculate the difference between the original
price and the discounted price and then determine the percentage off. The
formula would be:
2.
Second problem:
·
When you get
home, you begin to wonder if it makes a difference which coupon is used first.
You decide to calculate the cost if the order was reversed and the 10% coupon
was used first and then the 20% off coupon. Decide if the order makes a
difference and calculate the actual percentage off that you received. Be able
to defend your idea. You may want to try calculations with several items.
·
You decide to
purchase a big-ticket item (one that costs between $200 and $500), so you
search the Internet and find multiple discount coupons (see table below). Some
of these coupons can be used in combination with others. Consider the different
coupons and their requirements listed in the table below. List the possible
combinations of coupons that may be used.
|
Coupon
|
Requirements
|
|
$25 off
|
Can only be used on items costing
more than $200. Can be used with ONE other coupon.
|
|
10% off
|
Can be used with other coupons.
|
|
20% off
|
Can be used with other coupons.
|
|
25% off
|
Cannot be used with any other
coupons.
|
·
Determine the
lowest price you can obtain on your big-ticket item.
[Hint: When using the $25 off coupon, the order may make a
difference.]
3.
Third Problem:
·
With all of your
purchases at the sporting goods store, you have won a contest that allows you
to go on a spending spree. You will have $1000 to spend at the store and will
be able to use each coupon only once. Using your price list from before and the
available coupons determine how to spend the $1000. Be sure that you stay below
$1000 with the discounts. You can purchase more than one of each item. Try to
get the most for your money.
·
Determine the
total value of the items you purchased and calculate the actual percent off
that you received.
4.
Fourth problem:
·
Finally, your
group will use your coupon knowledge to make a presentation to the owner of the
store to determine how best to manage coupon sales. Choose one big-ticket item
on your price list to help you to calculate, for any coupon that applies, how
prices could be marked up to offset the reduction in prices. Fill in the
Marked-Up Price column in the table below.
|
Coupon
|
Marked-Up
Price
|
Percent
of Original Price
|
|
$25 off
|
|
|
|
10% off
|
|
|
|
20% off
|
|
|
|
25% off
|
|
|
[Hint: For example, if you consider the 20% off coupon for
an item that costs $299.99. You would then calculate (.8)x = $299.99. Then
divide both sides by .8, which results in $374.99. The storeowner should price
the item at $374.99, so the discount takes the price back down to $299.99.]
·
Next, determine
the actual percent mark-up for each of the coupons. Fill in the Percent of
Original Price column in the table above.
[Hint: For example, when the $299.99 item was marked up to
$374.99, which results in (374.99/299.99) = 1.25 or 125% of the price or a 25%
mark-up. The formula would be:
·
Finally, using
your list of possible coupon combinations from Question # 2, determine
marked-up price and percent of original price for your big-ticket item. (You
have already made the calculations for the single coupons above.) Make a table
for the storeowner, so he or she can understand the different combinations and
how prices should be marked up.
Collaboration
Get together with another group to
compare your answers to each of the four problems. Discuss how your group
decided to spend the $1000 in the spending spree. Exchange your list of items
with the other group and see if you can come up with a purchase plan that saves
them more money.
Discuss
your plans to help the storeowner. Some groups may have chosen to eliminate
using certain coupons or not allowing coupons to be combined on purchases.
·
If you owned a
store, how could you promote discounts and still make money?
·
What is a reasonable
discount? Does the overall price matter?
·
What is the
difference between dollar-amount coupons and percent-off coupons?
·
Is sales tax computed on the original or discounted price?
Does it change how the discounts should be applied?
·
Do some Internet research to determine how much your state
charges in sales tax. Include the sales tax in your presentation to the
storeowner.
Conclusions
Your presentation to the owner of the store should demonstrate how coupons
influence pricing. It should be on a poster board highlighting the differences
in coupons. It should include
all of the mathematics used to solve the four problems above. You may either
neatly write out the tables or use software such as Microsoft Word to create a
professional computer generated product. You may want to include pictures of
the actual items to make it colorful.
Grade
Your
project will be given a score of 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest score possible. You will be
evaluated based on the following criteria:
|
Score
|
Content
|
Presentation
|
|
4
|
Your project appropriately answers
each of the problems. Your percents are set up properly. The step-by-step
solution to each problem is given.
Your project correctly identifies all of the possible
coupon combinations, the lowest price possible based on the coupons, the
correct total under $1000 for the Shopping Spree with coupons, the best way
for a store owner to mark-up prices, and justifies the decision
mathematically.
|
Your project contains information presented in a logical
and interesting sequence that is easy to follow.
Your project is professional looking with graphics and
effective use of color.
|
|
3
|
Your project answers each of the
problems. Your percents are set up and step-by-step solutions are given.
Minor errors may be noted.
Your project identifies all of the possible coupon
combinations, the lowest price possible based on the coupons, the correct
total under $1000 for the Shopping Spree with coupons, the best way for a
store owner to mark-up prices, and justifies the decision mathematically.
Minor errors may be noted.
|
Your project contains information presented in a logical
sequence that is easy to follow.
Your project is neat with graphics and effective use of
color.
|
|
2
|
Your project attempts to answer
each of the problems. Percents are attempted and solutions are given. Major
errors are noted.
Your project attempts to identify all of the possible
coupon combinations, the lowest price possible based on the coupons, the
correct total under $1000 for the Shopping Spree with coupons, the best way
for a store owner to mark-up prices, and justifies the decision
mathematically. Major errors are noted.
|
Your project is hard to follow because the material is
presented in a manner that jumps around between unconnected topics.
Your project contains low quality graphics and colors that
do not add interest to the project.
|
|
1
|
Your project attempts to answer
some of the problems. Some percents are attempted and solutions are given.
Major errors are noted.
Your project attempts to identify
all of the possible coupon combinations, the lowest price possible based on
the coupons, the correct total under $1000 for the Shopping Spree with
coupons, the best way for a store owner to mark-up prices, and justifies the
decision mathematically. Major errors are noted.
|
Your project is difficult to understand because there is
no sequence of information.
Your project is missing graphics and uses little to no
color.
|
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