8) Apex Company produces artificial Christmas trees. A local shopping mall recently made a special order offer; the shopping mall would like to purchase 200 extra-large white trees. Apex Company is currently producing and selling 20,000 trees; the company has the excess capacity to handle this special order. The shopping mall has offered to pay $120 for each tree. An accountant at Apex Company provides an estimate of the unit product cost as follows:

Direct materials	$50.00
Direct labor (variable)	$3.50
Variable manufacturing overhead	$1.00
Fixed manufacturing overhead	$4.00
Total unit cost	$58.50

This special order would require an investment of $10,000 for the molds required for the extra-large trees. These molds would have no other purpose and would have no salvage value. The special order trees would also have an additional variable cost of $5.00 per unit associated with having a white tree. This special order would not have any effect on the company's other sales. If the special order is accepted, the company's operating income would increase (decrease) by

A) $2,300 decrease. B) $13,100 decrease.

C) $2,100 increase. D) $13,100 increase.