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

Company Name .........................................................Merchandise Concept
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) .................Membership warehouse
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) .......................Discount general merchandise
Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN) .........................................Fashion department store

For a recent year, the following cost of goods sold and beginning and ending inventories are provided from corporate annual reports (in millions) for these three companies:

a. Determine the inventory turnover ratio for all three companies. Round all calculations to one decimal place.
b. Determine the number of days€™ sales in inventory for all three companies. Use 365 days and round all calculations to one decimal place.
c. Interpret these results based on each company€™s merchandising concept.

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Nordstrom Costco Wal-Mart Cost of goods sold $360,984 $102,901 $9,168 Inventories: Beginning of year End of year 45,141 44,469 1,733 1,945 8,908 8,969