(L.OBJ. 2) Making special order and pricing decisions [15-20 min] Garden House operates a commercial plant nursery where it propagates plants for garden centers throughout the region. Garden House has $5,000,000 in assets. Its yearly fixed costs are $625,000 and the variable costs for the potting soil, container, label, seedling, and labor for each gallon-size plant total $1.70. Garden House's vol- ume is currently 500,000 units. Competitors offer the same plants, at the same qual- ity, to garden centers for $4.00 each. Garden centers then mark them up to sellto the public for $8 to $10, depending on the type of plant. ments Garden House's owners want to earn a 12% return on the company's assets. What is Garden House's target full cost? 1. get profit? Short-Term Busin Assume Garden House has identified ways to cut its variable costs to $1.55 per unit. What is its new target fixed cost? Will this decrease in variable costs allow the company to achieve its target profit? Garden House started an aggressive advertising campaign strategy to differentiate its plants from those grown by other nurseries. Monrovia Plants made this strategy work so Garden House has decided to try it, too. Garden House does not expect vol- ume to be affected, but it hopes to gain more control over pricing. If Garden House has to spend $120,000 this year to advertise, and its variable costs continue to be $1.55 per unit, what will its cost-plus price be? Do you think Garden House will be able to sell its plants to garden centers at the cost-plus price? Why or why not? 3. 4