Assume a duopoly of office supply big box stores where each carries the same merchandise and each advertises that it will "meet or beat" any competitor's price. Assume further that they have no online competition from anyone else. How does the "meet or beat" policy affect buyers in terms of the prices offered to them over the long run? What does this suggest about oligopolistic behavior generally?

Mr. beautiful, an organization that sells weight training sets, has an ordering cost of $40 for the bb-1 set. (bb-1 stands for body beautiful number 1.) the carrying cost for bb-1 is $5 per set per year. to meet demand, mr. beautiful orders large quantities of bb-1 seven times a year. the stockout cost for bb-1 is estimated to be $50 per set. over the past several years, mr. beautiful has observed the following demand during the lead time for bb-1: demand during lead time probability40 0.150 0.260 0.270 0.280 0.290 0.1total 1.0the reorder point for bb-1 is 60 sets. what level of safety stock should be maintained for bb-1?