The Taco Barn

After tallying the receipts for their first year of operation, the owners of the Taco Barn are encouraged. Sales of their artisanal tacos, made from such exotic ingredients as ground beef, cheese, and beans, have been strong and seem to give hope to the coming year. Taco sales by month are shown in the table.

Month

Sales

January

$474$

February

$485$

March

$501$

April

$588$

May

$579$

June

$673$

July

$594$

August

$679$

September

$608$

October

$699$

November

$732$

December

$732$

Armed only with his fingers, the owner decides that the safest forecasting approach is a linear trend line. Generate a forecast for the year using this technique and then calculate forecast errors using MAPD. What is the mean absolute percent deviation for this forecasting approach?

$3\mathrm{.}33\%$

$2\mathrm{.}17\%$

$4\mathrm{.}35\%$

$2\mathrm{.}82\%$