A recent income statement of Walmart reports net sales of $482,229 million and cost of goods sold of $365,086 million for the year ended January 31, 2015. The comparable sales and cost of goods sold figures for the year ended one year earlier were $473,076 million and $358,069 million, respectively. As you would expect, to be able to achieve this high level of sales, a great deal of inventory must be maintained so that customers will find what they want to buy when they shop in Walmart stores. In fact, in the January 31, 2015, balance sheet, inventory is presented at $45,141 million and the comparable figure for a year earlier is $44,858 million.
a. Using the year-end inventory figures, compute the inventory turnover for Walmart for both years.
b. Compute the average number of days required by Walmart to sell its inventory for the same years.
c. In which year was the company more efficient in its management of inventory? Explain your answer.