Sullivan's Handbags mark up their bags at 45% of the selling price. Pat Sullivan saw a bag at a trade show that she would sell to her customers for $85. What is the most she could pay for the bag and still retain the 45% markup of the selling price?
To find out the most Pat Sullivan could pay for the bag, we need to first determine the selling price after the 45% markup.
Let's assume the original cost price of the bag is X dollars.
To calculate the selling price after the 45% markup, we can use the following formula:
Selling Price = Cost Price + (Markup Percentage * Cost Price)
In this case, the markup percentage is 45%, which can be written as 0.45. So the formula becomes:
Selling Price = X + (0.45 * X)
According to the given information, the selling price is $85. Therefore, we can write the equation as:
$85 = X + (0.45 * X)
To solve this equation for X (the original cost price), we can simplify it as follows:
$85 = 1.45 * X
Dividing both sides of the equation by 1.45:
X = $85 / 1.45 ≈ $58.62
So, the original cost price of the bag is approximately $58.62. This means that the most Pat Sullivan could pay for the bag and still retain the 45% markup is $58.62.