Assuming they did not open any new stores, on average, how many stores did they close down per year between 2000 2000 and 2010 2010?

Question

Actual problem: Revenue in 2000 for a bakery chain totaled $8.9 billion from 5,586 shops nationwide. During the next 10 years, the bakery had to close down a few shops, and the total revenue in 2010 from 5,176 shops was $7.8 billion.

Answer 1

5586-5176=410. So they appeared to have closed 410 stores, which is 410/10=41 per year, on average.

(The revenue doesn't seem to have any bearing on what the question is asking for. It may have been inserted to confuse the puzzle-solver.

The difference in revenue is $1.1 billion. On average each lost store's revenue was $2.683 million.

$8.9 billion from 5586 stores averages to $1.593 million per store, and $7.8 billion from 5176 stores averages to $1.507 million per store. The drop in average revenue is due to the loss of 410 stores that had a higher average revenue.)