The bookstore is deciding on how many copies of the highly popular textbook “Matching Supply with Demand” to order for the upcoming semester. The book retails for $105, while the bookstore buys it from the publisher for $45. At the end of the semester, they may return any unsold copies to the publisher for a third of their money back. They expect the demand for the textbook to be normally distributed with a mean of 85 and a standard deviation of 20.
1. How many copies of the textbook should they order?
A. 76 B. 85 C. 94 D. 105
2. The bookstore ended up ordering 100 books. However, many students bought the ebook version of the textbook, such that actual demand for the text was 60. Because of this, they revise their contract with the publisher under which they buy the book for $60, but can now return any unsold books for 50% of their money back. To draw more of the online demand, they also reduce the retail price of the book to $90. They forecast demand to remain the same as in part a due to the new competitive price. Should the number of books they buy this semester change? Explain.
3. The bookstore has decided to buy textbooks from Bob’s Books, a reseller who purchases used textbooks from students and faculty. Bob’s buys the books from students for $5 and sells them to Loyola’s bookstore for $40. Loyola sells these used books for $55. Loyola orders this text from Bob’s once per semester and Bob’s expects Loyola’s demand for these books to be normally distributed with a mean of 40 and a standard deviation of 10. Bob’s donates to charity any books that Loyola doesn’t purchase.
How many books should Bob’s buy back from students?
A. 0 B. 35 C. 45 D. 52