EquestrianZone, a family owned business that sells horse products, was founded in 1976 and has grown to have 8 locations throughout the western United States. Ned Picket, the son of the founder and current owner, has grown tired of the physical paperwork. During a date with a really nice cowgirl he met on FarmersOnly.com, he learned that a database would be just what he needs to get rid of that darned paperwork once and for all.

Ned heard that your company has a great Information Systems program and has contacted you to build the data model that will be used for the database. During your conversation with Ned, you learn the following Business Requirements (rules).

As the company has grown, Ned has observed how different regions have different characteristics. For example, costs to procure certain products vary per region, and logistics costs differ as well. Therefore, Ned wants to categorize stores into regions. Each region will have at least 1 store, and possibly many stores. Each store will belong to only 1 region. For regions, Ned wants to track the RegionID, Name, and a Description. For stores, Ned wants to track the StoreID, Address (StreetAddress, City, State, Zip), and the EmployeeID of the employee who manages the store.

Each store must have multiple employees to operate. Each employee works at just 1 store. For employees, Ned wants to track EmployeeID, FirstName, LastName, SSN, HireDate, and Title. Some employees are store managers, but most are not. Each store is managed by 1 employee.

This is what I have so far. I'm not sure how to build it with a strong relationship though.

Side question: is it okay for a database to have weak relationships or is it better that it has only strong relationships? and is that possible?

REGION PK RegionID Name Description STORE PK StorelD FK EmployeelD Street Address City State Zip EMPLOYEE PK EmployeelD FirstName LastName SSN Hire Date Title