Question

A merchant offers a large group of items at $30\%$ off. Later, the merchant takes $20\%$ off these sale prices and claims that the final price of these items is $50\%$ off the original price. As a percentage of the original price, what is the difference between the true discount and the merchant's claimed discount

Answer 1

6%

Step-by-step explanation:

The first discount means that the customer will pay 70% of the original price. The second discount means a selling price of 80% of the discounted price. Because 0.80(0.70) = 0.56 = 56%, the customer pays 56% of the original price and thus receives a discount, for a difference of 50% - 44% = 6%.

Answer 2

The difference between the true discount and the merchant's claimed discount is that the true discount is 44% which is a 6% discount difference with the merchant's claimed discount of 50%.

Step-by-step explanation:

If the merchant offers a 30% discount on products and then, offers a 20% discount from the price with the 30% discount that is not a 50% discount from the initial price as it would be a 44% discount. This because when the 30% discount is applied, customers will pay the 70% of the price and when the 20% discount is applied over this price, customers would be paying the 56% of the price:

70*0.2= 14

70-14= 56

This means that customers would be getting a 44% discount because:

100-56= 44

According to this, the difference between the true discount and the merchant's claimed discount is that the true discount is 44% which is a 6% discount difference with the merchant's claimed discount of 50%.