dress was initially listed

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sanju09: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3650; Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 amFollowed by: 80 members; Location: India; Thanked: 267 times; GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Thu Aug 12, 2010 6:25 am

A dress was initially listed at a price that would have given the store a profit of 20% of the wholesale cost. What is the wholesale cost of the dress?

(1) After reducing the listed price by 10%, the dress sold for a net profit of 10$.
(2) The dress sold for 50$.

[spoiler]Source: freegmattest.net[/spoiler]

The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha

Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Thu Aug 12, 2010 6:25 am

kmittal82: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 324; Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 6:44 amFollowed by: 3 members; Location: London; Thanked: 70 times

by kmittal82 » Thu Aug 12, 2010 6:52 am

Let wholesale price = x
Selling price = 1.2x (20% profit on x)

(1)

Reducing listing price by 10% means the selling price = 1.2x - 10% = 1.08x

Profit = 1.08x - x = 10 = > Sufficient to solve for x

(2)
1.2x = 50 => Sufficient to solve for x

Hence, each statement on its own is sufficient (D)

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crackinggmat: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 79; Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 11:58 am; Thanked: 1 times

by crackinggmat » Fri Aug 13, 2010 6:18 am

i think answer should be A only...
we dont know from B ,that whether the dress was sold at its list price.....moreover if we assume so, the two statements contradict each other...ie they give different answer

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kmittal82: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 324; Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 6:44 amFollowed by: 3 members; Location: London; Thanked: 70 times

by kmittal82 » Fri Aug 13, 2010 6:29 am

crackinggmat wrote:i think answer should be A only...
we dont know from B ,that whether the dress was sold at its list price.....moreover if we assume so, the two statements contradict each other...ie they give different answer

Hi cracking,

I think it should be safe to assume the dress was sold at list price, since the question stem says it was initially listed at that price. I always look at the options independently, and if you just look at option 2, the question rephrases as:

A dress was initially listed at a price that would have given the store a profit of 20% of the wholesale cost. What is the wholesale cost of the dress, if the dress was sold for $50?

Should the 2 options always result in the same numerical answer? If you follow what I did, then both the statements give the same answer in terms of "yes, we can find out the wholesale cost of the dress from either statements", even though numerically speaking they are both giving different answers.

Any experts would like to clarify please?

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sanju09: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3650; Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 amFollowed by: 80 members; Location: India; Thanked: 267 times; GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:28 pm

kmittal82 wrote:
crackinggmat wrote:i think answer should be A only...
we dont know from B ,that whether the dress was sold at its list price.....moreover if we assume so, the two statements contradict each other...ie they give different answer
Hi cracking,

I think it should be safe to assume the dress was sold at list price, since the question stem says it was initially listed at that price. I always look at the options independently, and if you just look at option 2, the question rephrases as:

A dress was initially listed at a price that would have given the store a profit of 20% of the wholesale cost. What is the wholesale cost of the dress, if the dress was sold for $50?

Should the 2 options always result in the same numerical answer? If you follow what I did, then both the statements give the same answer in terms of "yes, we can find out the wholesale cost of the dress from either statements", even though numerically speaking they are both giving different answers.

Any experts would like to clarify please?

If $x is the wholesale cost of the dress, then the initial list price was $1.2 x. What is x?

(1) This is straight... 0.9 Ã— $1.2 x - $x = $10. Sufficient

(2) If the dress was sold for $50, then this selling price may or may not be the listed price, hence insufficient

[spoiler]A[/spoiler]

The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha

Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com

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[email protected]: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 11:23 pm

by [email protected] » Sun Sep 19, 2010 11:24 pm

I still think the answer should be D. List price is always equal to Selling price. How can we assume a discount was to be given.

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sumit.sinha: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 82; Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2010 8:18 am; Location: India; Thanked: 5 times

by sumit.sinha » Mon Sep 20, 2010 1:25 am

crackinggmat wrote:i think answer should be A only...
we dont know from B ,that whether the dress was sold at its list price.....moreover if we assume so, the two statements contradict each other...ie they give different answer

I agree with crackinggmat.

Let s - listed price , b - wholesale cost, profit = s - b
s - b = 0.2b

(1)
0.9s - b = 10
Solving b = 50
SUFFICIENT

(2)
We don't know if the listed price is 50$ or after after reducing the listed price by 10% the price is 50$

If listed price is 50$ and the dress was actually sold at listed price then 50-b=0.2b i.e. b = 41.6$
And if suppose the listed price was reduced by 10% and then the dress was sold at 50$ then s = (500/9)$
and hence b = 66.6$.
INSUFFICIENT

CORRECT ANSWER (A).

Cheers,
Sumit

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sanju09: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3650; Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 amFollowed by: 80 members; Location: India; Thanked: 267 times; GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Mon Sep 20, 2010 1:25 am

[email protected] wrote:I still think the answer should be D. List price is always equal to Selling price. How can we assume a discount was to be given.

If you list me worth 2 cents, are you sure you will be able to sell me for 2 cents?

Moreover, the list price is determined before selling and the selling price is determined after selling.

The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha

Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com

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