What is an increase in competition likely to do to the demand?

According to the law of demand, there is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded. that is, the demand curve for goods and services slopes downward. why?

Assume today is december 31, 2013. barrington industries expects that its 2014 after-tax operating income [ebit(1 – t)] will be $400 million and its 2014 depreciation expense will be $70 million. barrington's 2014 gross capital expenditures are expected to be $120 million and the change in its net operating working capital for 2014 will be $25 million. the firm's free cash flow is expected to grow at a constant rate of 4.5% annually. assume that its free cash flow occurs at the end of each year. the firm's weighted average cost of capital is 8.6%; the market value of the company's debt is $2.15 billion; and the company has 180 million shares of common stock outstanding. the firm has no preferred stock on its balance sheet and has no plans to use it for future capital budgeting projects. using the corporate valuation model, what should be the company's stock price today (december 31, 2013)? round your answer to the nearest cent. do not round intermediate calculations.

The management of a supermarket wants to adopt a new promotional policy of giving a free gift to every customer who spends > a certain amount per visit at this supermarket. the expectation of the management is that after this promotional policy is advertised, the expenditures for all customers at this supermarket will be normally distributed with a mean of $95 and a standard deviation of $20. if the management wants to give free gifts to at most 10% of the customers, what should the amount be above which a customer would receive a free gift?