Retail Method Many Large Retailers Take a Physical Inventory near Year-End and Year-End

question 94

Essay

Retail method
Many large retailers take a physical inventory near year-end and state in their annual report that inventory has been valued by the "retail method." What does this mean? (Your answer should address [1] whether inventory is valued in the financial statements at cost or retail prices,and [2] how this dollar amount is determined.)

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Definitions:

Constant Gross Margin Method

A pricing strategy where the gross margin percentage is kept constant despite variations in product costs.

Joint Cost Allocation

The process of assigning the cost of a production process that yields multiple products proportionally to those products.

Activity-Based Costing

A costing method that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity to all products and services according to the actual consumption.

Volume-Based Costing

A costing methodology that assigns costs based primarily on the volume of goods or services produced, such as in traditional absorption costing systems.