Mercia Chocolates produces gourmet chocolate products with no preservatives. Any production must be sold within a few days, so producing for inventory is not an option. Mercia's single plant has the capacity to make 91,000 packages of chocolate annually. Currently, Mercia sells to only two customers: Vern's Chocolates (a specialty candy store chain) and Mega Stores (a chain of department stores). Vern's orders 46,000 packages and Mega Stores orders 16,000 packages annually Variable manufacturing costs are $12 per package, and annual fixed manufacturing costs are $516,000 The gourmet chocolate business has two seasons, holidays and non-holidays. The holiday season lasts exactly four months and the non-holiday season lasts eight months. Vern's orders the same amount each month, so Vern's orders 15,600 packages during the holidays and 31,600 packages in the non-holiday season. Mega Stores only carries Mercia's chocolates during the holidays