I n August, Walton Bookstore must decide how many of next year’s nature calendars to order. Each calendar costs the bookstore $7.50 and sells for $10. After February 1, all unsold calendars will be...

I n August, Walton Bookstore must decide how many of next year’s nature calendars to order. Each calendar costs the bookstore $7.50 and sells for $10. After February 1, all unsold calendars will be returned to the publisher for a refund of $2.50 per calendar. Walton believes that the number of calendars it can sell by February 1 follows the probability distribution shown in Table 11.1. Walton wants to develop a simulation model to help it decide how many calendars to order.

Objective To use built-in Excel tools—including the RAND function and data tables, but no add-ins—to simulate profit for several order quantities and ultimately choose the “best” order quantity.