At Briarwood Garden Shop's annual end-of-season sale, every plant in the shop gets marked down. Clare purchased 4 rosebushes during the sale. Each rosebush cost $12 less than its full price. She paid a total of $96. How much would each rosebush cost at full price?

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1 answer

Let the full price of each rosebush be denoted by \( x \). According to the problem, each rosebush is marked down by $12. Therefore, the sale price of each rosebush is:

\[ x - 12 \]

Clare purchased 4 rosebushes, and she paid a total of $96 for them. Thus, we can set up the equation based on the total cost:

\[ 4(x - 12) = 96 \]

Now, we will simplify the equation:

\[ 4x - 48 = 96 \]

Next, we can add 48 to both sides of the equation to isolate the term with \( x \):

\[ 4x = 96 + 48 \] \[ 4x = 144 \]

Now, we divide both sides by 4 to solve for \( x \):

\[ x = \frac{144}{4} = 36 \]

Thus, the full price of each rosebush is:

\[ \boxed{36} \]

Finally, we can verify the solution. If the full price of each rosebush is $36, then the sale price is:

\[ 36 - 12 = 24 \]

The total cost for 4 rosebushes would be:

\[ 4 \times 24 = 96 \]

Since this matches Clare's total payment, our solution is confirmed. The full price of each rosebush is indeed \( \boxed{36} \).