Kendra Massey is trying to decide how to invest a recent windfall inheritance. Because she considers herself a fashionista, her first thought was to look at two of her favorite stores, Nordstrom and Macy's. Kendra visited each company's website and calculated the following ratios based on the financial statements she found there. She also found some industry averages to use as a comparison.

	Macy's		Nordstrom		Industry Average
	2015	2014	2015	2014	2015	2014
Current ratio	1.34	1.69	1.04	1.87	1.90	1.70
Acid-test ratio	0.29	0.53	0.27	1.12	0.50	0.60
Accounts receivable turnover	55.2 times	65.2 times	11.3 times	5.9 times	40.8 times	56.4 times
Average collection period	6.6 days	5.6 days	32.3 days	61.9 days	8.9 days	6.5 days
Inventory turnover	3.02 times	3.07 times	4.99 times	5.15 times	3.20 times	4.10 times
Average days to sell inventory	120.9 days	118.9 days	73.1 days	70.9 days	114.1 days	88.8 days

Required

(a) Which of the two companies has the stronger liquidity position?

(b) How do the companies' positions compare to the industry averages?