Question

1. You are the manager of a small store that specializes in hats, sunglasses, and other accessories. You are considering a sales promotion of a new line of hats and sunglasses. You will offer the sunglasses only to those who purchase two or more hats, so you will sell at least twice as many hats as pairs of sunglasses. Moreover, your supplier tells you that, due to seasonal demand, your order of sunglasses cannot exceed 100 pairs. To ensure that the sale items fill out the large display you have set aside, you estimate that you should order at least 210 items in all. Assume that you will lose $3 on every hat and $2 on every pair of sunglasses sold. Given the constraints above, how many hats and pairs of sunglasses should you order to lose the least amount of money in the sales promotion? [Using Graphic method]​

Answer 1

To lose the least amount of money in the sales promotion, you should order the minimum number of hats and pairs of sunglasses while still satisfying the constraints given.

Let x be the number of hats you order and y be the number of pairs of sunglasses you order.

From the information given, we can set up the following constraints:

y = 2x (because you will sell at least twice as many hats as pairs of sunglasses)

y <= 100 (because your supplier tells you that your order of sunglasses cannot exceed 100 pairs)

x + y >= 210 (because you estimate that you should order at least 210 items in all)

We also know that you will lose $3 on every hat and $2 on every pair of sunglasses sold. So the objective is to minimize the cost:

Cost = 3x + 2y

Now we can use the constraints to set up a linear optimization problem. We can use a solver to minimize the cost and find the optimal values of x and y that meet the constraints.

Solving the problem gives us x = 140, and y = 280, so you should order 140 hats and 280 pairs of sunglasses to lose the least amount of money in the sales promotion.