Group Activity 8 Successive Percents

Please do the following at the beginning of every computer activity.

a. Open a new Word document.

b. Click on the Office Button in the upper left corner, then slide over "Save As".   Choose either "Word Document" to save your document as a Word 2007 document or "Word 97-2003 document" to save your document in an early version of Word.  If you are not sure which to choose, you should use "Word 97-2003 document".  Save the document to the desktop by setting the "Save in" textbox to "Desktop". (Saving to the desktop makes it easy to retrieve your work when you are finished.)  Your file name should be entitled something like "Group Activity 5".  Last, confirm the save as type in the last box.  (*.docx) is the suffix for a Word 2007 document.  (*.doc) is the suffix for early versions of Word.

Activity

Everyone shops, especially before the holidays!  It is common for stores to offer items on sale at a certain percentage off.  It is becoming increasingly popular for stores to offer items at an additional percentage off the sales price.  This a copy of an ad from Carson Pirie Scott where many items in the store were 60% off the original price. With a coupon, you could receive an extra 20%, 15% or 10% off you purchase depending on the item.

1. a.  Suppose you purchase a Women's Coat for $150.00 (original price).  The item is on sale for 60% off the original price.  What is the sale price?

b.  If you have a coupon and purchase ladies outerwear you can take an additional 15% off the sale price.  Take an extra 15% off the sale price you calculated in question 7a.  What is your final price for the women's coat?

c.  How much did you save in total on the women's coat (absolute change)? 

d.  What was the total percentage savings overall on the women's coat (percentage change)?

e.  Your employees in the home store would like a list of what the final price would be on sale items after both discounts (the 60% sale discount and the extra 10% coupon discount) are applied.  The employees want to verify that they are ringing up the items correctly.  As store manager, you make a list of selected sales items including their original price, the sale price (60% off) and price after using a coupon (an additional 10% off after the 60% off).   Fill in the follow table in sample of savings 2008.xls.  Enter formulas under "Sharper Image Electronic Gadget" and then fill each formula across (rather than down); don't just type in the answers.  Paste the completed table in your word document. 

f. Look at the row where you calculated the "Overall Dollar Savings after using the coupon".  Does the amount of savings depend on the price?  Explain.

g.  Look at the "Overall Percentage Savings after using the coupon".  Does the overall percentage of savings (successive percentage change) depend on the price?  Explain.

2.  a. Your boss says that the company is struggling and that he needs to cut your salary by 20%.  He promises that in 6 months he will raise your new pay by 20%.  Does this restore your original salary?  Explain.

b. If the salary was decreased by 20%, by what percent would it need to be increased in order to restore your original salary?

3. Last year, it was bad news:  the value of your investment plunged by 50%.  This year was much better:  your investment increased in value by 75%.  Over the two-year period, has your investment shown a gain or lost?  Show your work.

4.  The value of stocks can vary dramatically.  Suppose a stock decreases in value by 50% one year.  The next year it increases by 50%.  By how many percent has the value of the stock changed over the two year period?  Give your answer and briefly describe your reasoning.