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:

The cost of goods sold for each company were:
Cost of Goods Sold
(in millions)
Albertson's ........$28,711
Kroger .......... 42,140
Safeway .......... 25,228
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 inventoryposition?

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Merchandise Inventory End of Year (in millions) Albertson's Kroger Safeway $3,162 4,356 2,741 Beginning of Year (in millions) $3,104 4,169 2,642