How a percent-off discount works
A percentage discount removes a fraction of the original price. Convert the percentage to a decimal — 30 percent becomes 0.30 — multiply it by the price to find the saving, then subtract that from the price to get what you actually pay. Equivalently, you pay the remaining fraction directly: at 30 percent off you pay 70 percent of the original.
Because the discount is proportional, the same percentage saves more in dollars on a pricier item. Thirty percent off a $20 item saves $6, while the same 30 percent off a $200 item saves $60.
Reading the result
The headline is the final price — the amount due at the register after the discount. The "you save" figure is the dollar value removed from the original price.
The chart splits the original price into what you still pay and what you save, so the size of the deal is easy to take in. A bigger saved slice means a deeper discount.
Watch out for stacked and misleading discounts
Real-world pricing can be trickier than a single percentage:
- Stacked discounts multiply rather than add — 20 percent off then a further 10 percent off is 28 percent off, not 30.
- Tax is usually applied to the discounted price, so the final receipt may be higher than the figure here.
- An "extra X percent off the lowest marked price" applies to an already-reduced price, not the original.
- Check that the original price is genuine; an inflated starting price makes a discount look larger than it is.
Formula
finalPrice = price·(1 − percentOff/100); youSave = price − finalPrice