Kế toán hàng tồn kho trong một hoạt động bán lẻ trình bày một số thách thức. Các nhà bán lẻ với một số loại hàng tồn kho có thể sử dụng phương pháp xác định cụ thể giá trị hàng tồn kho của họ. Phương pháp như vậy có ý nghĩa khi các đơn vị kiểm kê cá nhân là đáng kể, chẳng hạn như ô tô, cây đàn piano, hoặc áo choàng lông thú. | I APPENDIX D RETAIL INVENTORY METHOD OBJECTIVE 1 Determine ending inventory by applying the retail inventory method. Accounting for inventory in a retail operation presents several challenges. Retailers with certain types of inventory may use the specific identification method to value their inventories. Such an approach makes sense when individual inventory units are significant such as automobiles pianos or fur coats. However imagine attempting to use such an approach at Wal-Mart True-Value Hardware Sears or Bloomingdale s high-volume retailers that have many different types of merchandise. It would be extremely difficult to determine the cost of each sale to enter cost codes on the tickets to change the codes to reflect declines in value of the merchandise to allocate costs such as transportation and so on. An alternative is to compile the inventories at retail prices. In most retail concerns an observable pattern between cost and price exists. Retail prices can therefore be converted to cost through use of a formula. This method called the retail inventory method requires that a record be kept of 1 the total cost and retail value of goods purchased 2 the total cost and retail value of the goods available for sale and 3 the sales for the period. Here is how it works The sales for the period are deducted from the retail value of the goods available for sale to produce an estimated inventory goods on hand at retail. The ratio of cost to retail for all goods passing through a department or firm is then determined by dividing the total goods available for sale at cost by the total goods available at retail. The inventory valued at retail is converted to ending inventory at cost by applying the cost-to-retail ratio. Use of the retail inventory method is very common. For example Safeway supermarkets uses the retail inventory method as do the department stores of Target Corp. The retail inventory method is illustrated below with assumed data for Best Buy. Illustration
