An article in the April 12, 2004, edition of BusinessWeek, "The Costco Way'Higher Wages Mean Higher Profits," compared Costco Wholesale Corporation data with Wal-Mart's Sam's Club data. The tables below present some of the data used to support the article's claim.

Required
a. Is the information in the tables above best described as primarily financial accounting data or managerial accounting data in nature? Explain.
b. Provide additional examples of managerial and financial accounting information that could apply to Costco.
c. Explain why a manager of an individual Costco store needs different kinds of information than someone who is considering lending the company money or investing in its commonstock.

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How Costco Spends More on Employees Costco Sam's Club Average hourly wage rate Employees covered by a health-care plan Average annual health-care costs per employee Employees covered by a retirement plan Average annual retirement costs per employee $15.97 82% S5,735 91% S1,330 $11.53 47% S3,500 64% $747 Benefits to Costco from Spending More on Employees Costco Sam's Club Annual employee turnover Labor and overhead cost as a percent of sales Annual sales per square foot Annual profit per employee 6% 9.8% 795 $13,647 21% 17% $516 S11,039