La_Creme_de_La_Creme

LA CREME DE LA CREME Roger teaches in the French department at the University of Bowdale in the north of England. He lives in the nearby town of Morecaster with his wife Colette whom he met while on sabbatical leave in Paris. Colette is an intelligent young woman so that it was no surprise that she should, after a year or so settling into the English way of life, seek gainful employment. Besides, the meagre salary which Roger earned as an academic was insufficient to keep Colette in the Parisian manner to which she had become accustomed. But employment opportunities in Morecaster, especially for anyone without formally recognised British qualifications, are few. So it came about that Colette opened her cafe, reckoning that everyone has to eat and drink and that her French background might enable her to make it more appealing than most of her competitors to those who are attracted by something a little bit different and especially ‘continental’. She considered calling it simply ‘Colette’s Caf’ --- but not for long; after deliberating with Roger she went for the name ‘La Creme de la Crème’. She decorated the walls with prints of Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec, travel posters for the Dordogne and the Cote d’Azur, and advertisements for Gauloise Bleu and Pernod. And she played tapes, but not too loudly, of the Moulin Rouge, Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf. She also served the best coffee in town. Colette channelled most of her energy into establishing La Creme de la Creme as one of the top cafes in Morecaster, noted above all for the quality and freshness of its merchandise. Of course she tried as much as possible to exert a French influence on the food served and was successful in establishing croissants, French bread, and crepes as best sellers. But inevitably she had to recognise that many customers, especially among the Morecaster housewives who were taking a break from their shopping marathons, preferred a toasted teacake or a lavishly filled cream cake. And she had found a first-rate source of these in Charlie, a local baker. Charlie would happily supply Colette with as many of his delicious cream cakes as she wanted, provided that she could give him at least two days notice and ordered multiples of a dozen. Charlie’s specials, as they came to be known, proved a source of profit for both Charlie and Colette; Charlie was happy to provide them at 25 pence each, and Colette was delighted to sell them to her customers in La Creme de la Creme, served on a plate and with a fork, for 60 pence each. Of course although demand for Charlie’s specials was brisk it was not constant, and it pained Colette to have to give away leftovers sometimes at the end of a day. (She would call in with them at a children’s hospital on her journey home, for she would never contemplate sullying the reputation of her cafe by selling food that was not absolutely fresh.) But her prime objective was, indeed had to be, to make a profit. It was an article in the local paper that started her wondering whether her strategy of ordering four dozen cakes per day, Monday to Thursday, and five dozen on Friday and Saturday, was best. (She closed on Sundays.) This article reported on the usage of a recently opened town-centre car park, and gave details of the average takings over the past six months by day of the week. These were as follows: ​Monday​£​862.75 ​Tuesday​901.35 ​Wednesday (half-day closing)​660.80 ​Thursday​966.75 ​Friday​1315.40 ​Saturday​1273.10 Colette decided to monitor her sales of Charlie’s specials more closely in the coming weeks. Her records for the next ten weeks are attached. During this period she also became aware that she was frequently asked for the cakes when she had already sold out, especially on Friday and Saturday. At the end of this time she told Roger, her husband, about her experiment. She was somewhat surprised at his interest and particularly to find herself in the following week reflecting seriously on two points which he had contributed to their discussion. One was that it might not be necessary to give away any cakes left at the end of the day, but might be possible to sell them. Although customers of La Creme de la Creme would not buy yesterday’s cream cakes, students at the University of Bowdale, struggling to live on inadequate grants, might be less discriminating, especially if the price were right. She decided to contact the university catering manager. Roger’s other suggestion was that she might try to negotiate a better price with Charlie in return for guaranteed orders for a number of months. This suggestion also she decided to pursue. The outcome of her enquiries was not altogether fruitless. The university catering manager said that he would be delighted to take any surplus cakes except on a Friday or a Saturday, because on Saturdays and Sundays he only provided a skeleton catering service (and skeletons don’t eat cakes, he joked). But he pointed out that the highest price that he could contemplate charging was 25 pence and therefore he would pay no more than 15 pence per cake. Charlie argued strongly that his special cakes were already a bargain at 25 pence each, but under pressure conceded that he might allow a further penny or a penny and a half per cake on orders of at least six dozen. Give Colette the benefit of your best analysis and advice. In particular she would like to know what sort of arrangements to make with Charlie and/or Bowdale catering department to maximise her profits, what these maximum profits will be, and how much it would cost her not to follow your recommendations. COLETTE’S 10-WEEK SALES RECORDS  Sold Unsold Week​1 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 48 34 31 47 60 60 0 14 17 1 0 0 Week​2 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 48 45 26 40 60 60 0 3 22 8 0 0 Week​3 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 46 31 31 42 60 60 2 17 17 6 0 0 Week​4 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 39 35 47 48 60 60 9 13 1 0 0 0 Week​5 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 41 48 34 40 60 60 7 0 14 8 0 0 Week​6 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 43 48 36 48 55 60 5 0 12 0 5 0 Week​7 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 48 47 37 39 60 50 0 1 11 9 0 10 Week​8 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 48 48 24 47 60 60 0 0 24 1 0 0 Week​9 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 48 48 25 48 60 60 0 0 23 0 0 0 Week​10 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 40 48 40 43 60 58 8 0 8 5 0 2  1