Group Activity Cards

Numbers and Operations Use groups of 3. Materials: Newspapers

Supermarket Markup

Read the following.

When a supermarket owner buys the items that fill the shelves in his or her store, he or she pays less for them than you do. Charging you more than he or she has to pay allows the supermarket owner to pay for and maintain a building that is located near you. It also allows the owner to hire people to serve you and make a living for himself or herself. The price a supermarket owner pays for most items is usually 85% of the price he or she charges you for the same items.

Each group member finds the prices of five items you could buy at a supermarket and estimates the price the supermarket owner had to pay for each item.