Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making

About this event

Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making (event code BTDM) is a Team Decision Making event for exactly two members of the same DECA chapter. The case studies focus on the buying and merchandising jobs that get products into customers' hands through forecasting, planning, buying, displaying, selling and customer service. All eight TDM events share one set of rules; only the exam cluster and the case-study subject change. Round by round: each team member takes the 100-question, multiple-choice Marketing cluster exam, written from the Tier 1 Business Administration Core and the Tier 2 cluster performance indicators, and the two scores are averaged into one team score. The team then receives a decision-making case study with five performance indicators (reduced from more in earlier years), gets 30 minutes to analyze it and organize a team-style presentation (you may only talk to each other during prep, and may use the notes you make), and then presents for 15 minutes to a judge who plays an executive in the business. Both partners must speak, the judge asks each team the same standard questions, and each partner should answer at least one. Finalists get a second case study. For the 2026-27 district level DECA has announced the instructional area for this event's case study is Economics. Scoring: the presentation evaluation is out of 100 points and is weighted twice the averaged exam score; the exam score carries forward into the final round. The judge scores the five performance indicators, the solution (unique, practical, effective), three Career Competencies and overall impression. Only a four-function calculator is allowed; no printed references, audio or visual aids.

What judges score

What's on the exam

Curated by ChapterPrep. Free unless noted. External links open in a new tab.