An item originally costs $80. A store marks up the price by 25%, then later offers a 20% discount off the marked-up price. What is the…

Use multipliers. A 25% markup multiplies the price by 1.25: $80 \times 1.25 = 100$. A 20% discount multiplies by 0.80: $100 \times 0.80 = 80$. The final price is $80, choice C, the same as the original. The percents do not combine by simple subtraction ($25 - 20 = 5$ would suggest $84, choice A) because they apply to different base amounts: 20% of $100 is $20, exactly canceling the $20 markup. Choice B ($76) comes from a 5% net decrease, and choice D ($60) comes from subtracting 25% from the original and ignoring the markup. Successive percents multiply.