How do grocery costs compare across the country? Using a market basket of 10 items including meat, milk, bread, eggs, coffee, potatoes, cereal, and orange juice, Where to Retire magazine calculated the cost of the market basket in six cities and in six retirement areas across the country (Where to Retire, November/December 2003). The data with market basket cost to the nearest dollar are as follows:

City Cost Retirement Area Cost Buffalo, NY $33 Biloxi-Gulfport, MS $29 Des Moines, IA 27 Asheville, NC 32 Hartford, CT 32 Flagstaff, AZ 32 Los Angeles, CA 38 Hilton Head, SC 34 Miami, FL 36 Fort Myers, FL 34 Pittsburgh, PA 32 Santa Fe, NM 31

a. Compute the mean, variance, and standard deviation for the sample of cities and the sample of retirement areas.

b. What observations can be made based on the two samples?