Purchase point media

Your Purchase Point Project #500895 is being returned as not graded (one last time) for the following reasons as a combination of these results in a failing grade (the next submission will be graded as is):

I am repeating some of the feedback that was provided previously which was also part of the instructions for the project. Read the feedback and instructions carefully as you are not following the instructions which will result in a failing grade.Also, read the additional comments provided.

For Step 1:

To begin, read the PPMC report, focusing on problems with the form of the report. (“Form” means spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are correct and that the text is grammatically correct. Also, form means that the format of the text as far as font, bold, underlining, indents, etc… are correct.) Prepare a typed, clearly communicated summary of all errors or weaknesses you find in the form of this report. This should be a numbered list. There are well over 30 form errors in the document. (The ways to go about doing this for this step is to think of yourself as an English Composition instructor and a student has turned in a required paper that was written. You are going to go through the paper, point out and correct the errors that were made. Simply identify as many problems as you find, including formatting, spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage errors.) Although the PPMC report isn’t well-written, don’t attempt to rewrite the report. Only present a numbered list of the errors found. Comment by Burcicki, Jim: You provided only 21 and not all of them are correct.

To report the numbered list of form errors for this step, each error should have three components:

1) The location of the error.

2) What the error is.

3) How the text should have been written correctly.

Here is an example of how you’ll present the form errors. Comment by Burcicki, Jim: This is a professional paper and should bewritten as such.If you do not follow the instructions for what is required and for formatting, you will lose points.

Summary of Errors in the Form of the PPMC Report

1. Location:

The first page of Exhibit 1, the last sentence of the first paragraph states “You should independently investigate and fully understand all risk before making investment decisions.”

Error:

The word risk is singular. It should be plural.

Correction:

It should have been written “You should independently investigate and fully understand all risks before making investment decisions.”

Next, reread the PPMC report, focusing on problems with the substance of the report. (“Substance” means the figures and data that are being reported and making sure the math is correct.) Identify the obvious errors or problems first by focusing on the addition or math errors. Prepare a typed, clearly communicated summary of all errors you find in the substance of this report. These should be presented in a numbered list.

To report the numbered list of substance errors for this step, each error should have three components the same as the presentation of the form errors:

1) The location of the error.

2) What the error is.

3) How the text should have been written correctly.

The heading for the substance errors should be “Summary of Errors in the Substance of the PPMC Report”.

Do not take this step lightly. The data and figures found in the report are used to calculate the beak-even analysis for Step 2. As presented, the data is incorrect and therefore, the break-even analysis would be incorrect. Therefore, it is important that you find “all” of the substance errors and correct them as these corrected figures will be what you use to make the break-even calculations for Step 2.

For Step 2:

You did not submit the Excel spreadsheet which is required. No Excel file– No Credit.

For Step 3:

Step 3 requires three items:

1) The ticker symbol for the store chain.

2) The number of stores for the store chain.

3) A Works Cited page for the figures found as the number of stores.

Table 1should be reproduced as a table in your Word document for Step 3 and the ticker symbol and the number of stores inserted from your own research.

To find the ticker symbol for each of the store chains, it is as easy as opening up Google Chrome as your web browser and typing in the store name followed by “ticker symbol” into the search box. The hits form the search should reveal the ticker symbol for that store. Alternatively, you could use a financial web site such as Yahoo Finance, E-trade, etc… to do your searching. All of the stores have a ticker symbol with the exception of one which is a private company.

Using your own research skills and abilities, determine the number of grocery stores for each store chain. How you go about doing this is up to you and your research skills.

Here is what you are looking for as far as the number of stores is concerned:

· You are looking for the most “current” information. However, current does not mean today.

For example, if store A (which has 10 stores) took over store B (which had 3 stores) in a merger, then B is no longer in business. The number of stores for A will be 13 as of today because it is still in business. The number of stores for B will be 3 which is how many it had before the merger. That is the most current for B – not zero.

As another example, if a store declares bankruptcy, it all depends upon the bankruptcy status. If the store is in Chapter 11, which is reorganization then the number of stores – say – 57 – will be the current information. If the store is in Chapter 13, which is a closing of the business, then the number of stores will be zero.

Be aware that the “solution” to the number of stores in the table is kept current – “as of today.” But, that does not mean that data will all be “as of today.” It is possible that the most current information might be 2015 or 2016. It all depends upon your research and what is available. Finding the correct information is the purpose behind doing research.

One other thing to watch out for in doing your research is a “name change.” If a store changes its name, then list both the old name and the new name and the current information available for the number of stores.

· You should rarely use third party sites such as Google Finance, InvestSnips, Investopedia, Wikipedia, newspaper articles, etc… as these do not have the most current and accurate information. You should use information from the business web site, SEC filings, Annual Reports, etc… for the most applicable, relevant and current information.

· Lastly, this step involves research. “Research” is not doing a quick search and picking a web site or two and going with what is found. Research is looking at quite a few sources and thinking critically about what is found as to relevancy, currency and accuracy. For example, one web page may say “about 500” stores, but, another page on the website will say “536 stores” exactly. Or one web site might have information from March 2016 and another might have information from December 2016. Which is more current and relevant? The December 2016 web site. Not only do you need to do research, but, you also must think critically about the information you find.

Along with Table 1, a Works Cited page needs to be included for Step 3. This is Standard English Composition. Work and/or figures that are not your own need to be cited as part of a paper.

If no citations are provided or the citations are not properly formatted, this becomes “Plagiarism” which is unacceptable at Penn Foster or in the workplace.

· There should be a correctly formatted citation for each figure for the number of stores for the grocery store chain.

This is standard for English Composition and should follow MLA or APA formatting. If you do not remember how to make a correct citation, do a search on the Internet for “Purdue OWL” and when you get there search the OWL (Online Writing Lab) site for “MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications)” as this is the most likely source you will use and refresh your memory. Alternatively, you can search Penn Foster’s Library for the Purdue Owl web site and/or telephone and speak with an English Instructor.

· The web address provided for the citation should take the reader directly to the web page where the number of stores can be found. The reader should not have to search for your information. Do not provide a generic web address such as the homepage of a web site unless the actual number of stores is on that web page.

Please rework and resubmit the project for grading. If you have any questions, feel free to telephone me toll free at 1.888.427.1000, Monday thru Friday from 9am to 4pm ET.

Jim Burcicki

Senior Instructor

Step 1

(A)The PPMC Report: Summary of Errors in the Form of the Report

1 The Introductory paragraph starts with a sentence fragment ‘Safe harbor statement under the …act of 1995’ which makes no contextual sense.

2. The report further goes on to say “This project statement of net income contains forward-lookingstatements; all such forward-looking statements are…” Here, the first part of the sentence becomes a fragment i.e. “This project statement of net income contains forward-looking statements,” without a conjunction like ‘and’ joining the two parts of the sentence together.

3. The author obviously means ‘projected’ but omits the ‘ed’ from the word. The phrase ‘project statement’ makes no sense in the context of its presentation.

4. There is yet another sentence fragment which is “Changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting such statements”. Again, the word ‘effecting’ is incorrectly used in place of ‘affecting’.

5. Other errors in the introductory paragraph include the use of the singular ‘risk’ instead of the plural ‘risks’ in the line “You should independently investigate and fully understand all risk before making investment decisions”. Further in the phrase ‘Corporate house’, both the words should have been capitalized.

6. The report reads in the ‘Advertising Revenue’ section as “It is expected a minimum of 14,400 stores will be using the Company's unique display panel by the end of the first year”. The sentence is grammatically incorrect as the word ‘that’ should have been used as a conjunction between the words ‘expected’ and ‘a’.

7. In the opening paragraph of the ‘Replacement due to Vandalism’ section, the word ‘charge’ is used erroneously in lieu of the correct ‘charged’.

8. In the last paragraph of the same section, the last line reads “Assuming an even distribution by quarter over the year, each quarter would result in 36,000 panels being replaced at a cost of $223,920 and the printing of inserts will add an addition cost of $3,960 for a total replacement cost of $227,880.” The word ‘addition’ is incorrect and the correct word used should have been ‘additional’.

9. Under the section ‘Marketing, Sales and Commissions’, the report reads “The Company has contracted with a media company to handle all marketing materials and advertising, their budget for the first year is $2,500,000. And has contracted with an advertising sales company that is responsible for booking the advertisements, their budget for the first year is $2,000,000.” Here, the two sentences have fragments concluding eachin “their budget for the first year is ...” The second sentence starts with the conjunction ‘And’ which is incorrect.

10. In the ‘Grocery Store Operations’ section, the first two sentences in the fourth paragraph read “The installation of Ad Holders is $2.00 per cart. With 1,200 new shores using the Company's advertising system each month and each store has 200 shopping carts in use this results in 240,000 installations each month”. The first sentence lacks suitable clarity as the reader can only presume that the $2 mentioned is the cost of Ad-holder installation, as the sentence says nothing amount the amount being the cost. The second instance of the use of installation calls for its use in the plural as in ‘installations’.

11. In the second sentence of the same section, there is a tense error as the word ‘have’ is used instead of ‘having’ in “each store have 200 shopping carts in use”.

12. Under the ‘Accounting and Audit’ section, the penultimate sentence reads “In addition, to the estimate of salaries, the will be a cost for the year-end audit to meet the listing requirements of regularity bodies.” The word ‘the’ has been erroneously inserted in place of the correct word ‘there’.

13. In the same sentence, the phrase ‘regularity bodies’ should read ‘regulatory bodies’. The word ‘regulatory’ has been misspelled as ‘regularity’.

14. In the Advertising section, the following sentence lacks clarity. “Advertising packages will be sent to the top two food manufacturing companies which will be directed towards the advertising executives”. What exactly is meant by wo food is not clear and neither are the functions of the advertising executives mentioned.

15. Under the ‘Bank Charges’ section, the last line reads “It is assumed this cost will

Be $500 per quarter.” The word ‘that’ needs to be used as a conjunction to join the sentence fragments in between the words ‘assumed’ and ‘this’.

16. Under the Insurance section, the sentence ‘Additional insurance will be carried for

Protection in the event a malfunction of the display unit causes harm.’ is grammatically incorrect. The correct sentence should be ‘in the event of a malfunction….causing harm. There are missing prepositions and a tense error.

17. Under the ‘Office and Sundry’ section, the sentence “Initially, the cost of starting two offices; one in the eastern part of the United States and the other in the western part,

Which will require a greater outlay than in subsequent months “has been structured incorrectly and it does not convey clearly what it wants to say. The word ‘initially’ has been used incorrectly and the word ‘which’ is clearly redundant here.

18. Under the Rent section, the figure $10,000 has been erroneously typed as $io,000, i.e. the alphabets i and o have been substituted for the numbers 1 and 0 in mistake.

19. Under the ‘Salaries and Benefits’ section, the last benefits section reads “It is assumed employee benefits will be 20% of the salaries paid.” Here, the word ‘that’ should have been used as a conjunction between the words ‘assumed’ and ‘employees’.

20. Under the ‘Stationery and Printing’ section, the second sentence reads “Said cost is estimated at $10,000.” This is not an actual sentence but a fragment.

21. Under the ‘Travel and Accommodation’ section, a sentence in the middle reads “Therefore, it is anticipated travel costs will be $10,000 a month for the first quarter, increasing by 100% for each the second and third quarters.” The preposition ‘of’ is missing in between the words ‘each’ and ‘the’ rendering the sentence incomplete.

(B). The PPMC Report: Summary of Errors in the Structure of the Report Comment by Burcicki, Jim: There are more than there substance errors.

1 GAAP does not call for any statement named “Projected Statement of Net Income” to the best of my knowledge. This is not a conventional Accounting term. Comment by Burcicki, Jim: This is not a “Substance” error.

2. In Note 6, there is an addition error corresponding to the second quarter Marketing, Sales and Commission Expenses. The total should be actually $ 4,770,000 whereas it has been given as $4,777,000 in the report.

3. In the same note 6, there is a transposition error in the 15% commission figure of the 3rd quarter. The figure mentioned in the report is $5,382,000 whereas the correct figure should be $5,832,000.

4. In note 16, Management Fees, the Vice President’s annual remuneration has been given as $9,000 in the report whereas it should actually be $90,000.

Step 2 Comment by Burcicki, Jim: The Excel file needs to be included as part of the submission. Step 2 should only reference the Excel file.No file – no credit.

The attached Excel spreadsheet gives the detailed calculations of PPMC’s Break Even Analysis by calculating its monthly, quarterly, and annual revenues, fixed and variable costs and then by calculating the Contribution Margin.

As can be seen from the Excel Sheet,

1. PPMC’s Net operating income in the first year has been derived to be $ 63,867,376.

2. PPMC’s breakeven point in terms of carts will be at 690,905 carts

3. PPMC’s breakeven point in terms of stores will be 3,455 stores.

Step 3

As desired, a table incorporating US grocery retail store chains with the number of stores of each has been given below. All data pertaining to the number of stores of a particular company is backed up by a reference presented in the APA 6th Ed. Style. A list of references has been provided at the end where the information provided in the table can be checked and verified.

Table of Publicly traded US Grocery Retail Companies Comment by Burcicki, Jim: The table should look exactly like the table in the instructions with it being filled in with the appropriate information.

Total : 14,439 stores

References

Ahold Delhaize( 2018). United States: All the facts about our stores in the US. Retrieved on January 25, 2018, from https://www.aholddelhaize.com/en/brands/united-states/

Albertsons Inc.( 2007). New Albertsons INC (1355833) SEC Filing 10-K Annual report for the fiscal year ending Thursday, February 22, 2007, p.2. Retrieved on January 25, 2018, from https://www.last10k.com/sec-filings/1355833

Business Wire (2004). Fresh Brands to Convert Four Stores to Piggly Wiggly Brand; Additional Wisconsin Supermarkets Expand Wholesale Business. Retrieved on January 25, 2018, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20040317005370/en/Fresh-Brands-Convert-Stores-Piggly-Wiggly-Brand

Foodrama (2018). Home Grown In Texas. Retrieved on January 25, 2018, from http://foodaramatexas.com/about/

Forbes.com (2017)America's Largest Private Companies: 2017 ranking, Retrieved on January 25, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/companies/publix-super-markets/

Gristedessupermarkets.com (2016). Discover Our Story. Retrieved on January 25, 2018, from http://www.gristedessupermarkets.com/