For all the creative math GENIUSES out there?

Question

My daughter needs help with her 8th grade math homework, and

sadly, this isn't something I can assist her with. She is stressing

over this one problem we can absoloutely NOT figure out. Sadly, she

is a perfectionist. Could anyone help find the answer to this. If you do find the answer, could you explain how it works?

I capitalized the words we have decided are ''key'' words.

The question is;

"Bob and his Dad visited the HARDWARE store on SATURDAY. They OBSERVED the following transactions: Mr. Harris bought 4 for $0.50, Mrs. Clark bought 21 for $1.00, Mr. Montaro bought 1,134 for $2.00 and Mrs. Park bought 450 for $1.50. What were THEY BUYING?"

Answer 1

They were buying numbers.

They're in a hardware store buying house numbers that cost 50¢ each.

Mr. Harris bought a "4" for $0.50.

Mrs. Clark bought two numbers, a "2" and a "1" for $1.00.

Mr. M bought four numerals for $2.00.

and so on...

(It's harder if tax was added in!)

Answer 2

the number of their street adress, to go on their houses.

(:

Answer 3

maybe this isnt about math and the simple answer is hardware.

Answer 4

This is actually an old brain teaser, disguised to sound like a math problem.  The answer is that they each went to the hardware store to buy little metal numerals, to put on the front of their houses or mailboxes!  Each number piece cost 50 cents.

Mr. Harris didn't by four items.  He bought one item: a numeral "4" to s***w on to the front of his house.  This cost 50 cents.

Mrs. Clark bought two numbers, a "2" and  "1".  So that cost her a dollar ($0.50 + $0.50).

Mr. Montaro bought four numbers: two "1"s, a "3" and a "4".  So it cost him $2.00 total.

And finally, Mrs. Park bought three numbers: a "4", a "5", and a "0".  So these three pieces cost her $1.50.