Professional Documents
Culture Documents
OBJECTIVES
When you complete this case, you’ll be able to
• Identify discernable errors, irregularities, and impropri-
eties in style and format within publicly reported data
Graphs
Supplemental information is provided in Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1 illustrates the price per share for PPMC common
stock for the time period August 20, 2003 through September
27, 2004. The latter date represents the specific event when
PPMC filed their 10QSB. Figure 2 compares the PPMC price
per share with comparable index measures, such as the Dow
Jones Industrial Average, Standard and Poor’s 500, NASDAQ,
and Russell 2000 indices, for the same period of time.
FIGURE 2—Comparison of the PPMC price per share over comparable index measures, such as the Dow
Jones Industrial Average, Standard and Poor’s 500, NASDAQ, and Russell 2000 indices, for the same
time period
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
Step 1
In the infamous Enron bankruptcy case, the form of the
financial statements prepared by the Enron Corporation
and WorldCom was very professional; however, the substance
was lacking, leading to audit and market failures and the
eventual bankruptcy of both of these big-cap, or large-
capitalization firms. PPMC represents a reverse case, in
which the form of the data contained in the PPMC news
release and corporate Web site was very poor.
Step 2
Below is a recommend framework for the analysis and com-
putation of the PPMC break-even point in terms of carts and
stores (Table 1). The PPMC Note column refers to the notes in
the PPMC source document. In fact, the PPMC notes appear
to be organized by cost behavior. This is similar to the approach
you used in your Managerial Accounting course. You should
follow this approach or framework as you compute the PPMC
break-even point in terms of carts and stores. Begin with rev-
enues, follow with variable costs (VCs), develop the contribution
margin (CM; in aggregate), followed by fixed costs (FCs),
and, finally, compute PPMC’s net operating income (NOI)
and break-even point in terms of both carts and stores.
Table 1
Note J F M A M J J A S O N D Annual
Stores
Total Carts
Multiply by
revenue per cart
Total revenues 1
Amortization
2
(2 year S/L)
Step 3
Now study Table 2, which presents a recommended framework
for the analysis and computation of the amount of market
share required to achieve break-even in stores for PPMC. The
composition of the stores in the example will change over time.
Using your own research skills and abilities, determine the
number of grocery stores in the United States. For example,
you could go to Yahoo!Finance to identify a stock for a publicly
traded grocery retailer (e.g., KR for Kroger), then use the
Yahoo!Finance feature that allows you to view stocks for
competing firms in the same industry. Once you’ve done
that, go to the Web site for each firm, where the vast majority
list the number of retail outlets.
KR Kroger
ABS Albertson’s
Safeway
Ahold
SUPERVALU
Winn-Dixie Stores
Ingles Markets
Blue Square-Israel
Pathmark
Ruddick
Weis Markets
Marsh Supermarkets
Nash Finch
Fresh Brands
Spartan Stores
Gristede’s Foods
Foodarama Supermarkets
Arden Group
Total
Writing Guidelines
Refer to the “Submitting Your Work” section at the end of
this book for details on submission requirements for the
PPMC Case assignment.