Convenience store regional manager - regional stockout incident SOP: the trigger is fixed at "N stores, same SKU, out more than H hours"; the first hour has three moves - map the blast radius, publish one customer-facing line, name the single information node; inter-store transfers ride a transfer document or do not happen, and each escalation tier names its contact

You are an incident-process consultant for
convenience store regional operations. I am a
regional manager writing an archivable,
drillable SOP for "regional concentrated
stockouts" - distribution interruptions,
supplier cutoffs, weather events emptying the
same SKU across dozens of stores. Produce the
full document per the framework below, written
for the regional team and store managers.

Document structure (follow exactly):

1. Incident definition and tiers (define first,
tier second):
- Trigger (fixed): [trigger stores] or more
  stores, the same SKU (or same supplier's
  category), continuously out beyond [trigger
  hours] - all three conditions at once
  establishes a regional incident; any
  condition missing means routine stockout
  handling and this SOP does not activate
- Three tiers:
  C3 single-trade-area: multiple stores in one
  trade area, up to [ ] stores, region handles
  it alone
  C2 regional: across trade areas, [ ] stores
  or more, headquarters distribution must
  engage
  C1 regional involving fresh food or tobacco:
  regardless of store count - fresh supply
  cuts reshape daily sales structure, tobacco
  carries its own regulatory tracking -
  straight to C1 with immediate notice to the
  headquarters counterpart

2. The first hour (the regional manager's three
moves, in order, each with a completion
marker):
1. Map the blast radius (within 30 minutes):
   via the supervisor channel plus a store
   flash round, collect "what's out / how many
   stores / since when" into a blast list -
   complete when the list is posted to the
   regional channel and each supervisor has
   confirmed gaps closed
2. Publish the customer line (same batch): one
   quotable paragraph for stores to answer
   customers with (the wording stays [ ] until
   region and headquarters confirm it;
   principles: say "temporarily out, restocking
   under way," never speculate on causes,
   never promise a restock time) - complete
   when the wording is pinned in the regional
   channel
3. Name the single information node (by the end
   of the hour): one person (usually the
   regional manager or one supervisor) as the
   sole outlet to headquarters and sole inlet
   to stores - complete when the channel
   announcement reads "all information via X";
   from then on stores may not contact the
   headquarters distribution desk directly, or
   headquarters gets jammed and every answer
   it gives becomes inconsistent

3. Inter-store transfer rules (the
bookkeeping swamp):
- Permitted: ambient goods with surplus at a
  neighboring store, confirmed in the regional
  channel
- Must ride the system: a system transfer
  document every time - driver, supervisor, or
  store-run pickup all equal - paper travels
  with the goods. Verbal loans are never
  recognized: at next month's count, "I lent
  them a case" without a transfer document is
  not evidence of anything
- Tobacco is excluded from inter-store
  transfers: it carries its own regulatory
  tracking; shortages route through
  headquarters coordination, never regional
  side arrangements
- Transfer priority: from stores with the most
  surplus and the least distance; highest-
  volume stores and fresh food first (see
  section 5)

4. Escalation ladder (who contacts whom,
when):
- C3 unresolved after 24 hours -> promote to
  C2; regional manager notifies the
  headquarters distribution desk
- C2 at any moment -> regional manager
  notifies headquarters immediately and acts
  on headquarters direction
- C1 reports immediately, regardless of
  handling status
- Each tier states what gets reported: the
  blast list, actions taken, resources needed
  - never a bare "situation report"

5. Recovery sequence (no stampede when the
goods arrive):
- Highest-volume stores first, fresh food
  first, front-facing shelf positions first -
  publish the store order from the supervisor's
  volume rankings
- Each store's first move on arrival: pull the
  out-of-stock tags, notify the regulars
  (where the store runs a group) - the
  recovery message matters as much as the
  stockout message
- Within 48 hours of full recovery, walk the
  key stores: did substitutes grab the facings
  during the gap?

6. Postmortem (within [postmortem deadline] of
closure):
- Four items: blast scope and duration /
  timeline (triggered when, escalated when,
  restored when) / transfer and loss accounts
  (transfer documents totaled, fresh write-
  offs) / one improvement (exactly one process
  fix, naming which SOP clause changes)
- The postmortem amends process clauses only;
  it grades no individuals

Document format: four fill-in fields -
version / effective date / owner / trigger
parameters (stores, hours, tier thresholds);
every body action written as the triple
role + deadline + completion marker.

Prohibitions:
- No "ASAP," "promptly," or "coordinate with
  relevant parties" - every action carries a
  numeric deadline and a single named owner
- No invented supplier contingency plans, no
  platform names
- The customer-facing wording is not drafted
  for me - it stays blank pending confirmation;
  one wrong word becomes complaint material
- Verbal inter-store loans are never listed as
  an allowed option - half the reason this SOP
  exists is to end them

Why it is written this way

The trigger is fixed at three simultaneous conditions (store count, same SKU, duration) because stockout handling fails in both directions: underreaction (dozens of stores out all day and it still reads as routine fluctuation) and overreaction (three stores out for two hours launches the incident machinery and drags the regional team and headquarters into a routine wobble). The parameters stay blank for the region to set by fleet size, but the three-at-once structure is hard-coded - miss any one and it is routine handling, which keeps the SOP from becoming a daily tool. An emergency procedure used daily is the fastest way to make it worthless.

Of the three first-hour moves, the single information node is the most counterintuitive and the most decisive. The natural drift in an incident is every store manager calling headquarters to ask when the truck comes; headquarters drowns, starts answering inconsistently, and the stores grow more anxious - information fragmentation is messier than the stockout itself. Naming one inlet and one outlet trades a little speed for consistent answers from headquarters and one person holding the whole picture. The customer-line principles - never speculate on causes, never promise a restock time - exist because every early cause statement is a guess, and one broken "it will be here tomorrow" means no one believes anything said at the next outage.

Transfers must ride a system document because verbal loans are the single largest source of count variance after these incidents: everyone was in a hurry, the lending store relies on memory, the borrowing store on goodwill, and at the next count the two stores cannot reconcile - the investigation costs far more than the goods. Tobacco's exclusion is not an efficiency call: with its own regulatory tracking, stores arranging tobacco transfers between themselves is a red line, and this rule would rather be absolute than leave room for on-the-spot judgment.

The recovery sequence gets its own section because "the goods arrived" is usually the second-most chaotic moment of the incident: stores grab, and the highest-volume store restocks last. Highest-volume-first, fresh-first, published from the supervisor's volume rankings, converts a stampede into a queue. Pulling out-of-stock tags and notifying regulars is a first move because the recovery message needs managing exactly like the stockout message did - customers who never hear the shelves refilled haven't finished experiencing the outage. And the postmortem amends process only, exactly one item, so the meeting stays short enough to actually change the document: a postmortem listing twenty fixes changes none of them.

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