Question

A furniture store pays a wholesale price for a mattress. Then, the store marks up the retail price to 150% of the wholesale price. Later, they put the mattress on sale for 50% off of the retail price. A customer just bought the mattress on sale and paid $1,200.
Part A What was the retail price of the mattress, before the discount?

Part B What was the wholesale price, before the markup?

Answer 1

Part A:

Given that the mattress is sold for 50% off of the retail price, let the retail price of the mattress be x, then

50% of x = 1200
⇒ 0.5x = 1200
⇒ x = 1200 / 0.5 = 2400

Therefore, the retail price of the mattress, before the discount is $2,400.



Part B:

Given that the store marks up the retail price to 150% of the wholesale price. Let the whole sale price be p, then

(100% + 150%) of p = 2400
250% of p = 2400
2.5p = 2400
p = 2400 / 2.5 = 960.

Therefore, the wholesale price, before the markup was $960