Question: A small candy company sells a popular variety of hard candies in a reusable metal can. The company has been buying the cans from an overseas producer for $0.36 apiece. Other variable costs for this candy product amount to $1.14 per unit. The company has been selling 400 packages of this candy per week at a price of $5.50 each.
(a) Say the overseas producer announces that the price for the cans will increase by $0.25 per unit, and the product manager is considering passing on that cost increase to customers by raising the product's price to $5.75. Calculate the breakeven sales level for this possible price change.
(b) Describe the meaning of the breakeven sales level that you calculated in Part (a).