Assignment

1. For this question you will use the Excel file posted on Blackboard titled "Homework 5 Data." The tab entitled "STORES" contains county-level data from the USDA Food Atlas. The tab "Variable List" is a data dictionary, which you will need to complete this assignment successfully. Throughout the data set and assignment, "grocery store" is taken to mean conventional supermarket.

A. Please calculate the mean, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum for every variable across all counties. Report these statistics in a table for PCH_GROC_07_12, PCH_SUPERC_07_12, PCH_CONV_07_12, and PCH_SPECS_07_12.

B. What is the primary advantage of measuring food retail store counts per thousand people, or per capita, rather than using the raw number?

C. Did the average county in the U.S. see an increase or decrease in the number of conventional supermarkets per capita? Explain your answer.

D. For each store type (GROC, SUPERC, CONV, and SPEC), report the number of counties that lost all stores of that type between 2007 and 2012. Do these numbers corroborate the statistical portrait of the U.S. food retail industry we discussed in class? Why or why not?

E. When you presented some of these numbers at a food retail conference in Hawaii, an executive from Walmart argued that you are actually understating the growth of supercenters with your statistics on PCH_SUPERC_07_12 (as well as the per capita measure). Is she right? Investigate this possibility using the raw supercenter store counts. If you agree with her assessment, why was the growth understated previously? (Hint-it has to do with measuring change in percentage terms.)

F. Calculate the correlation between GROCPTH12 and SUPERCPTH12. What does this say about the nature of competition between supermarkets and supercenters? Explain in a couple of sentences at most.

G. One big question about the food retail industry is how it interrelates with food assistance programs. SNAP and WIC are the country's two biggest and most important. Calculating correlations as you see fit, which of the store formats in the data seems most closely associated with the redemption of food assistance benefits? Which is the least?

H. Calculate and report the coefficient of variation (CV) for number of stores per thousand people, in 2012, separately for supermarkets, supercenters, and convenience stores. Which of these formats exhibits the most variability in terms of stores per capita across the country? Which exhibits the least? Does this make sense? Why or why not?

2. What are some changes in the food retail industry in recent decades that may have contributed to long-term decrease in the real, inflation adjusted prices for foods? Name two that are specific to retailers and how they have changed their characteristics and operating practices.

Attachment:- Data.rar