In: Accounting
Exercise 12A-7 Customer Latitude and Pricing [LO12-9]
The postal service of St. Vincent, an island in the West Indies, obtains a significant portion of its revenues from sales of special souvenir sheets to stamp collectors. The postal service purchases the souvenir sheets from a supplier for $0.80 each. St. Vincent has been selling the souvenir sheets for $8.00 each and ordinarily sells about 80,000 units. To test the market, the postal service recently priced a new souvenir sheet at $7.00 and sales increased to 93,600 units.
Required:
1. What total contribution margin did the postal service earn when it sold 80,000 sheets at a price of $8.00 each?
2. By what percentage did the St. Vincent post office decrease its selling price? By what percentage did unit sales increase? (Round your answers to 1 decimal place.)
3. What total contribution margin did the postal service earn when it sold 93,600 sheets at a price of $7.00 each?
4. What was the postal service’s increase (decrease) in total contribution margin going from the higher price of $8.00 to the lower price of $7.00?
5. How many sheets would the postal service have to sell at the lower price of $7.00 to equal the total contribution margin earned at the higher price of $8.00? (Round your answer to the nearest whole number.)
6. What percentage increase in the number of sheets sold at $7.00 must be achieved to equal the total contribution margin earned at the higher price of $8.00? (Round your intermediate calculations to the nearest whole number. Round final answer to 1 decimal place.)
Answer 1.
Number of sheets sold = 80,000
Selling Price per sheet = $8.00
Cost per sheet = $0.80
Contribution Margin per sheet = Selling Price per sheet - Cost
per sheet
Contribution Margin per sheet = $8.00 - $0.80
Contribution Margin per sheet = $7.20
Contribution Margin = Contribution Margin per sheet * Number of
sheets sold
Contribution Margin = $7.20 * 80,000
Contribution Margin = $576,000
Answer 2.
Percentage Change in Selling Price = ($7.00 - $8.00) /
$8.00
Percentage Change in Selling Price = -12.5%
Percentage Change in Unit Sales = (93,600 - 80,000) /
80,000
Percentage Change in Unit Sales = 17.0%
Answer 3.
Number of sheets sold = 93,600
Selling Price per sheet = $7.00
Cost per sheet = $0.80
Contribution Margin per sheet = Selling Price per sheet - Cost
per sheet
Contribution Margin per sheet = $7.00 - $0.80
Contribution Margin per sheet = $6.20
Contribution Margin = Contribution Margin per sheet * Number of
sheets sold
Contribution Margin = $6.20 * 93,600
Contribution Margin = $580,320
Answer 4.
Change in Contribution Margin = $580,320 - $576,000
Change in Contribution Margin = $4,320
Answer 5.
Contribution Margin = Contribution Margin per sheet * Number of
sheets sold
$576,000 = $6.20 * Number of sheets sold
Number of sheets sold = 92,903
Answer 6.
Percentage Change in Unit Sales = (92,903 - 80,000) /
80,000
Percentage Change in Unit Sales = 16.1%