This year, Perez's Ski Shop had a profit of $80,000. This is 250 percent of last year's profit. What was the profit of Perez's Ski Shop last year?

So this year profit is 250% or 2.5 times greater than the profit the shop had last year.

Let x be the profit the shop had last year. To get this years profit, or 80000 $, we need to increase last years profit by 2.5 or:

2.5*x=80000.

Solve for x:

x=80000/2.5=32000

So last year profit was 32000 $.