Having given some thought to revenue recognition, Howie and his partners have now realized that they need to think more about how they treat their inventory and others costs. This is becoming particularly important as they are expanding into other "partner" high end food businesses (pickled food for one!) where they have joint ventures with partners working in these other food areas. Those new partners want to get a better understanding of the costs of doing business the HIC way as well as make sure that their joint venture is not being charged for ice cream or others costs. Howie decided to begin his examination of inventory by looking at the relatively simple retail ice cream business. He is trying to figure out what counts as an asset, what counts as a cost of good sold and what is a selling, general and administrative expense. As Howie looked around the store, he noted that every purchase included ice cream. People often wanted a sample before committing to a flavor which the staff would provide on one of the plastic spoons (they used to have small tasting spoons just for this, but the staff has found it easier to just have