The regional sales manager for American Toys, Inc., recently collected data on weekly sales (in dollars) for the 15 stores in his region. He also collected data on the number of salesclerk work hours during the week for each of the stores. The data are as follows:

Store Sales Hours Store Sales Hours 1 23,300 120 9 27,886 140 2 25,600 135 10 54,156 300 3 19,200 96 11 34,080 254 4 10,211 102 12 25,900 180 5 19,330 240 13 36,400 270 6 35,789 190 14 25,760 175 7 12,540 108 15 31,500 256 8 43,150 234

a. Develop a scatter plot of these data. Determine which variable should be the dependent variable and which should be the independent variable.

b. Based on the scatter plot, what, if any, conclusions might the sales manager reach with respect to the relationship between sales and number of clerk hours worked? Do any stores stand out as being different? Discuss.