Final answer:
Ellie owes the convenience store $22.41, which is calculated by first adding the cost of the items to get $20.98, then calculating the sales tax at 6.8%, which amounts to $1.43, and finally adding it to the initial total.Non of the given options is correct.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the amount of money Ellie owes the convenience store, we must first add together the cost of her items and then calculate the sales tax on the non-food items, finally adding it to the total cost of the items. Ellie's items cost $8.99 + $11.99 which equals $20.98. Since the city has a 6.8% sales tax on all items except food, we assume that some or all of Ellie's items are non-food. So, we have to convert 6.8% to a decimal by dividing by 100, which gives us 0.068. Then, we multiply the decimal sales tax rate by the total cost of the items to determine the sales tax amount. This would be $20.98 × 0.068 = $1.42664, which we round to the nearest cent to get $1.43. Adding the sales tax to the original price, we get $20.98 + $1.43 = $22.41. Therefore, Ellie owes the convenience store $22.41 rounded to the nearest cent.