In-store product placement is an essential part of being successful in the retail industry. With all the different brands out there, the competition for attention is fierce, especially with so many new brands trying to compete with established ones.

You would like to research your company's product displays and layout strategy and see if you can have a powerful influence on a consumer's decision of whether or not to purchase your product by positioning the product in different locations in the store. With the store manager approval you have set your first product stand in the front of the store, in the right hand-side of the entrance. You have given your product barcode a special last digit that you'll be able to recognize the sales coming from this location. You also positioned additional stand with your company product near the bakery (closer to the cashiers) and used a different last digit in your barcode to recognize the sales of the product coming from this stand. During 12 days you have collected the following total sales from each stand location. [open Retail Data.xls file] Note that the two population distributions do not appear to be normally distributed. Assume alpha 5%, apply the proper statistic test that will help you to find out if there is a difference between stand locations in terms of sales.

What are the hypotheses?

(a) H₀: the two population locations are the same H₁: The location of population 1(entrance) is to the right of the location of population 2(bakery)

(b) H₀: the two population have the same median sales H₁: the two population don't have the same median sales

(c) H₀: the two population locations are the same H₁: The location of population 1(entrance) is to the left of the location of population 2 (bakery)

(d) H₀: the two population have the same means sales H₁: the two population don't have the same means sales

(e) Both (a) and (b) are possible

(f) None of the above