Easymart is a grocery chain in Malaysia. It started as a small mom-andpop shop in Penang about 40 years ago, and has since expanded to become one of the largest grocery chains in the country with over 150 stores nationwide. Like many other grocery chains, they often need to provide markdowns (i.e., discounting to clear stock in store) on products that are not selling as well, in order to dispose of them before they reach their expiry date and become effectively worthless. Easymart has thus far leveraged its experience to develop certain rules of thumb for markdowns - if sales of certain products do not meet the target by a certain date before expiry, markdowns by 15%,25%, or 50% will be applied. The management team believes that there is a need to revise Easymart's markdown strategy. They recently approached BCG for a more automated implementation of markdowns that takes into account historical data and demand forecasts in order to achieve more granular and optimized pricing. (Question 1 of 8) Which of the following are likely to be the four most important pieces of data that we will need in order to make a recommendation? How quickly stock of the item can be replenished if it runs out. How sales of the item are likely to change as the price and time left to expiry change. Inventory cost to keep old stock in store (including storage cost and opportunity cost of displaying new items). Available price discount method(s) (e.g., buy one get one free, gift with purchase, straight-out discount etc.)