Kroger, Albertson's, Inc., and Safeway Inc. are the three largest grocery chains in the United States. Inventory management is an important aspect of the grocery retail business. Recent balance sheets for these three companies indicated the following merchandise inventory information:

a. Determine the number of days' sales in inventory and inventory turnover for the three companies. Round to the nearest day and one decimal place.

b. Interpret your results in (a).

c. If Albertson's had Kroger's number of days' sales in inventory, how much additional cash flow would have been generated from the smaller inventory relative to its actual average inventory position?objs. 4, 5

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Merchandise Inventory Beginning of Year (in millions) End of Year (in millions) $3,162 Albertson's Kroger Safeway 4,356 2,741 The cost of goods sold for each company were: $3,104 4,169 2,642 Cost of Goods Sold (in millions) Albertson's $28,711 Kroger 42,140 Safeway 25,228