Kroger, Safeway Inc., and Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. are three 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 Goods Sold (in million)

                                    Kroger                                     $58,564

                                    Safeway                                   31,589

                                    Winn-Dixie                              5,269

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 part (a).

c. If Winn-Dixie had Kroger’s number of days’ sales in inventory, how much additional cash flow (round to nearest million) would have been generated from the smaller inventory relative to its actual average inventory position?

Merchandise Inventory End of Year (in millions) $4,859 2,591 665 Beginning of Year (in millions) $4,855 2,798 649 Kroger Safeway Winn-Dixie