Grade 6 · The Market Year · Week 4

Markup Is Not Margin

The same dollar, measured against two different things, and plenty of adults mix them up.

This game goes with week 4 of the workbook. Do the page first; the game is for seeing the numbers move. Nothing you type is kept.

Fill both columns

Row a is done: cost $2.00, price $3.00, you added $1.00. Against the cost that is 50 percent markup. Against the price it is 33 percent margin. Same dollar.

Row b: cost $4.00, price $5.00

Row c: cost $1.50, price $3.00

Row d: cost $6.00, price $7.50

Percent of what?

Cost $ and price $

You added $1.00. Measured against the cost: 50% markup. Against the price: 33% margin.

The same dollar against the cost of $2.00.

The same dollar against the price of $3.00.

Whenever there is a profit, markup is the bigger number, because the cost is the smaller thing to measure against. Margin can never reach 100 percent. Markup can go past it.

The challenge

A supplier says they work on 25 percent and buy at $8.00. Both answers:

The workbook: The Market Year (free PDF). The teacher guide: answers and watch-fors.

Other weeks with a game: 3 Out of a Hundred, 10 Revenue Is a Formula, 11 Change the Price, Change the Line, 12 The Market Detective, 20 Pricing Against Somebody Else, 21 What a Discount Really Costs, 22 Bundles, 23 The Share You Are Going For, 31 Your Share of the Market, 35 Did the Move Work?. All games.