If a retailer pays $24 for an item and marks it up by 25%, what is the selling price?

To determine the selling price after a markup is applied, you start with the cost of the item and then calculate the additional amount based on the percentage markup.

In this case, the retailer pays $24 for the item and marks it up by 25%. To find the amount of the markup, you first calculate 25% of the cost. This is done by multiplying the cost by 0.25:

$24 (cost) × 0.25 (markup percentage) = $6 (markup amount).

Next, you add this markup amount to the original cost to find the selling price:

$24 (original cost) + $6 (markup) = $30 (selling price).

Therefore, the correct selling price of the item after the markup is correctly computed as $30. This highlights the importance of understanding how to calculate percentages of a cost and apply them to find a final selling price, a fundamental concept in pricing strategy in retail. The other choices represent calculations that either misapplied the percentage or did not account for the correct additions, which would lead to inaccurate conclusions.