Inventory turns, which should increase with improve volume plateau and may even go down.

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Compaq, using Dell-inspired quick inventory turns, still manages to eke out a profit in PCs.

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Inventory turns were an average 112.1 days at the end of the third quarter.

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The reason is that average inventory turns worsened for retailers last quarter (excluding grocers, drugstores and car dealers).

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Many numbers come to mind when you think about businesses: revenue, profit margin, inventory turns, return on invested capital.

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Urban stores drive more volume, faster inventory turns and greater operating efficiencies.

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Another red flag to look for is a slowing of inventory turns--that is, inventories are rising faster than cost of goods sold.

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If this bottleneck were unclogged, inventory turns would be 2.5.

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Nobody increases inventory turns better than Wal-Mart.

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Inventory turns matter because they show whether a company is able to move product faster (good for business if prices remain at profitable levels) or if products are moving slower (bad for business if this is an ongoing trend).

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And the biggest benefit, according to Pollak: Having West Coast produce sitting in a refrigerated warehouse on the East Coast will allow grocery stores on the East Coast to shorten their order times, increase their inventory turns and reduce inventory costs.

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