Question: A retail store sells greeting cards. Last week sales for a seven day period were as follows:

Week Day Sales

Mon 19

Tue 18

Wed 15

Thu 20

Fri 18

Sat 22

Sun 20

Please forecast next Monday sales using each of the following:

a. A five-period moving average

b. A weighted moving average with weights (0.6, 0.3, 0.1), starting with the most recent day.

c. Exponential smoothing with a smoothing constant equal to .20, assuming the forecast for Tuesday is 19.

d. Which method(s) should the company use to forecast period 8 and why?