Go to a retail business, such as a bookstore, clothing shop, gift shop, grocery store, hardware store, or car dealership in your local shopping area or a shopping mall. Ask to speak to someone who is knowledgeable about the store's inventory methods. Your instructor will assign groups to find the answers to the following questions. Be prepared to discuss your findings in class.
1. Merchandising Accounting:
Is the company a part of a chain or is it a small business? Does the company sell only merchandise or a combination of merchandise and services? How are sales recorded? Does the company sell on credit? If so, who decides who gets credit and what are the typical terms? Does the company buy any merchandise or in the case of a chain, does it order merchandise? If it purchases merchandise, how are purchases recorded?
2. Inventory systems
How is each item of inventory identified? Does the business have a computerized or a manual inventory system? Which inventory system, periodic or perpetual, is used? How often do employees take a physical inventory? What procedures are followed in taking a physical inventory? What kinds of inventory reports are prepared or received?