Walgreens and updated accounting standards: a prescription for confusion?

Professors Bean and Puccino are about to teach courses in which the new lease accounting standard will be required material. The professors are aware of much discussion and controversy surrounding the new standard and want to find out how this will affect firms’ financial statements. Because one of the industries most affected is the retail industry, the professors choose to look at Walgreens’ financial reports for the fiscal year immediately before the change, and the fiscal year immediately after.