Obtain the 2011 annual report for Canadian Tire Corporation from the company’s website or from SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Required:
a. Which types of inventories does the company have (raw materials, work in process, finished goods)?
b. What does the company include in inventory cost?
c. Which cost flow assumption does the company use?
d. How does the company define net realizable value for purposes of determining whether inventory is impaired?
e. How many days of merchandise inventory does the company have as at December 31, 2011? How many days was it in 2010? What is the most identifiable explanation for the significant change in this ratio from 2010 to 2011?Qualitatively, without doing any calculations, how would you adjust the numbers going into the ratio to make the comparison more meaningful?