The following offer was made in a store ad. "Any 2 or More – 14.99 Regular $20.00"


We can ask two questions.
1. How much do I save?
2. If the store rewrites the ad as a "percent off" ad,how would the ad read?

1.The first question addresses what we want to know as shoppers or consumers. How much do I save?

Well, remember two items must be purchased in order to save. In order to make the calculation easier, let us round $14.99 to the nearest cent. Why? The intent of rounding is to have a number close to the original number but easier to work during calculations.

Round $14.99 ---$15.00
If the items are purchased separately, the total is $20 +$20 = $40

If two items are purchased at the same time, the cost is $15 + $15 = $30

Savings ---- Subtract sales total from the original total.

$40 - $30 = $10 saved when 2 items are purchased

2. Also, it would be nice to know what percent was saved.
An excellent question for a math class: If the store rewrites the ad as a "percent off" ad, what would the ad say?

Let's plug the above numbers into a percent proportion.

Part/whole = % / 100

Part = amount saved; whole = total when purchased separately; percent = unknown

10 / 40 = X / 100

Cross multiply and set up an equation to solve
40X = 1000

Divide both sides by 40
X = 25

Thus, 25% was saved. The ad could possibly read, "Save 25% when you buy 2 or more."

An alternative method - use the Percent Equation

Percent * Whole = Part
40X = 10

Divide both sides by 40
X = .25

Change to percent by moving the decimal two places to the right. This is the same as multiplying by 100.

Thus, 25% was saved. The ad could possibly read, "Save 25% when you buy 2 or more."