Dan Pupp is a jewelry salesperson who calls on store accounts in the Midwest. One of his territories is shown in Figure 7-23. His mode of operation is to arrive at the territory the night before making his calls to stay at one of the local motels. He covers the region in two days and leaves the morning of the third day. Since he pays his own expenses, he would like to minimize his total costs for serving the accounts. Accounts 1 to 9 are covered the first day, and the remainder are visited the second day. He would like to compare two strategies: Strategy 1. Stay at motel M2 all three nights at $49.00 per night. Strategy 2. Stay at motel M1 to visit accounts 1 to 9, staying there two nights at $40.00 per night. Then, stay at motel M3 one night at $45.00 per night to visit accounts 10 to 18. After visiting accounts 1 to 9, he returns to M1 to stay overnight before moving to M3. He then stays overnight at M3 before moving on the next morning. The distance between M1 and M3 is 36 miles. Disregard any distance that he travels to and from the territory. Dan figures mileage costs at $0.30 per mile.
Which strategy seems best for Dan?

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Figure 7-23 Store Accounts (X and Motel Locations 18 17 13 14 15 76 0 11 12 X-coordinates eale 1-5 m