Joe wants to buy a baseball bat for no more than $30; the sporting goods store in town sells bats for $50. what can we assume about joe's decision to buy a bat

We can assume that Joe did not purchase a bat because he had determined an upper limit of what he was willing to pay, and the sporting goods store had no bats that met his criteria. Alternatively, it's possible that Joe only had $30, in which case he simply did not have the funds to purchase a bat.