Many young people moving into apartments and new homes look forward to the
excitement of furniture shopping. These young shoppers are usually interested in
cheaper, build yourself furniture, however, many of them are not too handy and the
excitement quickly dissipates as they start putting their furniture together. The
instructions, even if they are in English, are difficult to understand and the consumer
soon realizes that the savings may not be worth the hassle.
Built-4-U is an online furniture company that caters to those customers. Built-4-U
buys build yourself furniture directly from manufacturers at a discount price,
assembles each piece at their warehouse, and then ships directly to their customers.
Each customer can order their furniture online without ever having to leave their
home or search for the right tool to assemble. Joe Builder, the owner and CEO of
Built-4-U, plans to establish their beginning inventory by investing a maximum of
$35,000 on 25 popular items. The website for Built-4-U is scheduled to go live shortly
and all 4 inventory clerks were advised they might have to work five, 10 hour days
prior to the grand opening to assemble this startup inventory. Joe believes he should
order no less than 5 and no more than 20 units of each item. In addition, the
manufacturer has a minimum truck order of 6,000 pounds. Given the following
information, help Joe decide how many units of each item to order.