Bunuel wrote:
In a certain store, item X sells for 10 percent less than item Y. What is the ratio of the store’s revenue from the sales of item X to that from the sales of item Y?
(1) The store sells 20 percent more units of item Y than of item X.
(2) The store’s revenue from the sales of item X is $6,000 and from the sales of item Y is $8,000.
Kudos for a correct solution.
VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:Question Type: What Is the Value? This question asks for the ratio of revenue from sales of x to revenues from sales of y. So “revenue x: revenue y = ?”
Given information in the question stem or diagram: Item x sells for 10% less than item y.
Statement 2 is very clear on this problem so you should begin there.
Statement 2: The store’s revenue from sales of X = $6,000 and the revenue from sales of y = $8,000. This statement is clearly sufficient. The ratio is simply 6,000:8,000 or 3:4. The answer is either B or D. Note: This is a very good example of the construct “When one statement is very easy, the other will be hard and counterintuitive.” Everyone knows this is sufficient so there will be something tricky about Statement 1. Slow down and make sure you are not over- or underleveraging the given information in Statement 1.
Statement 1: The store sells 20% more of item y than item x. This statement, when combined with the given information, is sufficient. 20% more of item y is sold at 10% higher prices. Revenue = (Unit Price)(Number of Units). Conceptual understanding will allow you to stop at this point and realize that although you do not have the actual number of units or the actual price per unit, you can calculate the ratio of revenue from x to that of revenue from y. This is sufficient and
the answer is D. Note: Most people under-leverage this information because it does not give any hard number values. Using your hint from the other statement to dig deeper here, you should eventually realize that the percentage data is sufficient.