Whilst wandering through the streets of Canterbury this sign caught my eye. With the mathematics department’s favourite coffee shop in the back-ground, the sign promises a further drop of prices for outdoor enthusiasts.
‘Half price’ and ‘15%’ are both eye catching figures which are immediately understandable to the shopper, but the sign promises something else.
Will anyone think this is a ‘65% off’ sale and that bargains can be picked up for 35% of their recommended retail price(RRP)?
In fact a 15% reduction applied to a 50% sale is compound percentage problem best dealt with by percentage multipliers:
that is, half price with a further 15% applied amounts to a reduction of 57.5% with shoppers paying 42.5% of the RRP rather than 35%. Are the marketeers messing with our heads?
Perhaps nicer for the maths teachers in the coffee shop to see calculate in fractioons without electronic assistance:
Much nicer perhaps, but a ‘