Foot Locker, Inc., is the world’s number one retailer of athletic footwear and apparel. Headquartered in New York City, the company has over 32,175 employees and 3,310 retail stores in 27 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand operating under such brand names as Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Footaction, Runners Point, Sidestep, and SIX:02. In addition, it operates direct-to-customer channels through Eastbay.com. The company intends to increase its share of the worldwide market by adding stores and by growing its Internet and catalogue business. In recent years, Foot Locker officials have been rethinking the company’s retail mix. Determining the shoe mix that will maximize profits is an important decision for Foot Locker. By the year 2002, in an effort to stock more lower-priced footwear, the company had reduced its inventory of sneakers priced at $120 or more by 50%.

Discussion:Suppose the data presented below represented the number of unit sales (US$ millions) for athletic footwear in the years 2000 and 2019. Use techniques presented to analyze these data, and discuss the business implications for Foot Locker.Suppose Foot Locker strongly encourages its employees to make formal suggestions to improve the store, the product, and the working environment. Suppose a quality auditor keeps records of the suggestions, the people who submitted them, and the geographic region from which they come. A possible breakdown of the number of suggestions over a three-year period by employee gender and geographic location follows. Is there any relationship between the gender of the employee and the geographic location in terms of number of suggestions? If they are related, what does this relationship mean to the company? What business implications might there be for such an analysis?Drawing upon the American Hospital Association database (AHA), use techniques presented to address the following.

1. One of the variables included in this database is Region, which is coded as 1 through 9 representing nine regions of the United States. For example, 9 is the Pacific Region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. Another variable is Control, which represents type of ownership of the hospital. Six categories of ownership are included in this database and are coded as 1 through 6. An example is code 5, which is investor-owned for-profit. Is hospital Control independent of Region in this database?

2. Another variable in this AHA database is Service, which is essentially the type of hospital. In the database under Service, there are 15 different types of hospitals coded from 1 to 15. As an example, code 3 represents orthopedic hospitals. Using the database and techniques presented, test to determine if Service (type of hospital) is independent of Region.

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Price Category Less than $30 $30-less than $40 $40-less than $50 $50-less than $60 $60-less than $70 $70-less than $85 2000 $115 38 37 30 22 21 2019 $126 40 35 27 20 20