The regular selling price of an article at Acme Retailers is equal to the cost price of the article plus a markup of m%. When the owner of Acme Retailers agrees to sell 16 articles for the regular selling price of 12 articles plus a 20% discount, he still makes a profit of 20%. What is the value of m?
a) 100%
b) 80%
c) 75%
d) 66+2/3%
e) 55%
I've changed the wording to clarify what I believe is the intent of the problem.
We can plug in the answers, which represent the markup.
Given that both percentages in the problem are multiples of 10, the correct answer choice also is likely a multiple of 10.
Of the two multiples of 10 in the answer choices -- 100 and 80 -- the easier one to evaluate is 100.
Answer choice
A: 100% markup
Let the cost per article = 10.
Cost of 16 articles = 16*10 = 160.
Regular selling price of 12 articles with a 100% mark-up = 12*10 + (100/100)(12*10) = 240.
Selling price with a 20% discount = 240 - .2(240) = 240-48 = 192.
Profit = 192-160 = 32.
Profit/cost = 32/160 = 1/5 = 20%,
Success!
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