Amos Bundy runs a small convenience store. His sales are booming, but he is not quite sure why. He offers three main services: basic grocery sales, ready-to-eat sandwiches, pastries, and coffee, and pizza in three different varieties (cheese, cheese and sausage, and cheese and pepperoni). Since you stop at Amos’s store almost every day for coffee, you offer to help him look at his sales numbers. He has pulled the following information together for you.

Sales Item                          January           February                March                  April

Grocery sales                   1,525.00           1,385.00              1,250.00              1,100.00

Deli and Coffee                   950.00              850.00                 675.00                  550.00

Pizza                                     895.00              975.00              1,200.00               1,675.00

REQUIRED:

1. Calculate the absolute change in each category of sales items across the four months of this year. 

2. What do the numbers suggest? 

3. Calculate the percentage change by offering for Bundy’s store. Start with April and work backward to January. 

4. What do these percentages suggest? Does it differ from the information you got when you only used the amount of change in your original analysis? Why or why not?