The general merchandise retail industry has a number of segments represented by the

following companies:

Company Name Merchandise Concept

Costco Wholesale Corporation Membership warehouse

Walmart Discount general merchandise

JCPenney Department store

For a recent year, the following cost of merchandise sold and beginning and ending

inventories have been provided from corporate annual reports (in millions) for these

three companies:

Costco Walmart JCPenney

Cost of merchandise sold $67,995 $315,287 $10,799

Merchandise inventory, beginning 5,405 32,713 3,024

Merchandise inventory, ending 5,638 36,318 3,213

a. Determine the inventory turnover ratio for all three companies. Round to one decimal

place.

b. Determine the number of days sales in inventory for all three companies. Round to

one decimal place.

c. Interpret these results based on each companys merchandise concept.