Smalltown has two family-owned hardware stores that have been in business for years. major hardware decides that smalltown would be a good place to build one of its superstores. major opens, advertising unbelievably low prices; in fact, at below cost. because major owns stores nationally, it is able to keep prices extremely low until both of the family-owned stores have to go out of business because they cannot compete. after major is the only hardware store in town, it raises its prices enough to make up for its former losses and to make some additional profit. discuss this behavior in relation to antitrust law.

The following cost data relate to the manufacturing activities of chang company during the just completed year: manufacturing overhead costs incurred: indirect materials $ 15,800 indirect labor 138,000 property taxes, factory 8,800 utilities, factory 78,000 depreciation, factory 150,600 insurance, factory 10,800 total actual manufacturing overhead costs incurred $ 402,000 other costs incurred: purchases of raw materials (both direct and indirect) $ 408,000 direct labor cost $ 68,000 inventories: raw materials, beginning $ 20,800 raw materials, ending $ 30,800 work in process, beginning $ 40,800 work in process, ending $ 70,800 the company uses a predetermined overhead rate of $20 per machine-hour to apply overhead cost to jobs. a total of 20,500 machine-hours were used during the year. required: 1. compute the amount of underapplied or overapplied overhead cost for the year. 2. prepare a schedule of cost of goods manufactured for the year.

Zachary company produces commercial gardening equipment. since production is highly automated, the company allocates its overhead costs to product lines using activity-based costing. the costs and cost drivers associated with the four overhead activity cost pools follow: activities unit level batch level product level facility level cost $ 64,800 $ 27,730 $ 15,000 $ 154,000 cost driver 2,400 labor hrs. 47 setups percentage of use 11,000 units production of 780 sets of cutting shears, one of the company’s 20 products, took 240 labor hours and 7 setups and consumed 15 percent of the product-sustaining activities. required: (a) had the company used labor hours as a company wide allocation base, how much overhead would it have allocated to the cutting shears? (b) how much overhead is allocated to the cutting shears using activity-based costing? (c) compute the overhead cost per unit for cutting shears first using activity-based costing and then using direct labor hours for allocation if 780 units are produced. if direct product costs are $150 and the product is priced at 30 percent above cost for what price would the product sell under each allocation system? (d) assuming that activity-based costing provides a more accurate estimate of cost, indicate whether the cutting shears would be over- or underpriced if direct labor hours are used as an allocation base. explain how over-or undercosting can affect vaulker's profitability. (e) comment on the validity of using the allocated facility-level cost in the pricing decision. should other costs be considered in a cost- plus pricing decision? if so, which ones? what costs would you include if you were trying to decide whether to accept a special order?

Aproperty title search firm is contemplating using online software to increase its search productivity. currently an average of 40 minutes is needed to do a title search. the researcher cost is $2 per minute. clients are charged a fee of $400. company a's software would reduce the average search time by 10 minutes, at a cost of $3.50 per search. company b's software would reduce the average search time by 12 minutes at a cost of $3.60 per search. which option would have the higher productivity in terms of revenue per dollar of input?