Final answer:
The clothing store had 125 dresses in stock.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the number of dresses the store had in stock to begin with, we can set up a proportion using the given information.
Let's assume the number of dresses in stock is represented by x.
We know that 12% of the dresses were sold, which can be written as 0.12x.
We also know that 15 dresses were sold. So we can set up the following equation:
0.12x = 15
To solve for x, we divide both sides of the equation by 0.12:
x = 15 ÷ 0.12
x = 125
Therefore, the clothing store had approximately 125 dresses in stock to begin with.