jmc

Question

A merchant offers a large group of items at 30% off. Later, the merchant takes 20% off these sale prices and claims that the final price of these items is 50% off the original price. As a percentage of the original price, what is the difference between the true discount and the merchant's claimed discount? (Your answer should be a positive difference.)

Accepted Answer

The first discount means that the customer will pay 70% of the original price. The second discount means a selling price of 80% of the discounted price. Because 0.80(0.70) = 0.56 = 56% , the customer pays 56% of the original price and thus receives a 44% discount, for a difference of 50% - 44% = 6%.