Question 1 Add/Drop

Sales have never been good in Department C of Staceys Department Stores, for this reason, management is considering the elimination of the department. A summarized income statement for the store, by departments, for the most recent month is given below:

			Department
	Total		A		B		C
Sales	$1,000,000		$500,000		$320,000		$180,000
Variable expenses	574,300		338,000		166,000		70,300
Contribution margin	425,700		162,000		154,000		109,700
Fixed expenses
Salaries	49,000		18,000		16,000		15,000
Utilities	6,200		2,600		2,000		1,600
Direct advertising	89,000		32,000		27,000		30,000
General advertising 1	25,000		12,500		8,000		4,500
Rent on building 2	38,000		16,000		12,000		10,000
Employment taxes 3	4,900		1,800		1,600		1,500
Depreciation of fixtures	36,000		12,000		15,000		9,000
Insurance and property taxes On inventory and fixtures	7,900		2,300		4,000		1,600
General office expenses	54,000		18,000		18,000		18,000
Service department expenses	81,000		27,000		27,000		27,000
	391,000		142,200		130,600		118,200
Net income (loss)	$ 34,700		$ 19,800		$ 23,400		$ (8,500)

¹ Allocated on the basis of sales dollars

² Allocated on the basis of space occupied

³ Based on salaries paid directly in each department

The following additional information is available:

If department C is eliminated, the utilities bill will be reduced by $700 per month.

All departments are housed in the same building. The store leases the entire building at a fixed annual rental rate.

One of the employees in department C is Fred Jones, who has been with the company for many years. Mr. Jones will be transferred to another department if Department C is eliminated. His salary is $1,000 per month. Transferring Mr. Jones to the other department will allow that department to avoid hiring an new employee that would have been paid $800 per month.

The fixtures in department C would be transferred to the other departments if department C is eliminated. One-fourth of the insurance and property taxes in Department C relates to the fixtures of the department.

The company has two service departments purchasing and warehouse. If Department C is eliminated, one employee in the warehouse can be discharged. This employees salary is $800 per month. General office expenses will not change,

The space being occupied by department C could be subleased at a rental rate of $48,000 per month.

If department C is eliminated, the company expects department As sales to increase by 10% and department Bs sales to decrease by 5%.

Required

Do you recommend the elimination of department C. Use incremental analysis.