Anne Jones is a manager of a local Starbucks. Due to a weak economy and higher gas and food prices, Starbucks announced plans in 2008 to close 500 U.S. locations.

While Anne's store will remain open, she is concerned that nearby closings might affect her business.

A typical Starbucks customer visits the chain between 15 and 18 times a month.

Based on all this, Anne believes that customers will average 18 visits to her store over a 30-day month.

Anne needs to decide on staffing needs.

Too many employees would be costly to the store.

Not enough employees could result in losing customers who choose not to wait.

With an understanding of the probability distribution of customer arrivals,

Anne will be able to:

1. Calculate the expected number of visits from a typical Starbucks customer in a given time period.

2. Calculate the probability that a typical customer visits the store a specific number of times in a given time period