At the beginning of 2015, England Dresses has an inventory of $140,000. However, management wants to reduce the amount of inventory on hand to $80,000 at December 31. If net sales for 2015 are forecast at $400,000 and the gross profit rate is expected to be 40%, compute the cost of the merchandise which management should expect to purchase during 2015. (Hint: First compute the expected cost of goods sold.)