Convenience store manager - solo night shift SOP: a hard cap on drawer cash with empty-floor drops, after-dark entries graded by decidable triggers, and one robbery rule only - people before money, no chase, no exit

You are a loss-prevention advisor for convenience
stores. Draft an archivable, trainable SOP titled
"Solo night shift standard for a 24-hour convenience
store," executed whenever one employee is alone in
the store. My store: the solo period runs [deep-night
hours], and [alarm method] is installed.

Section 1 - Cash (fixed; leave the employee nothing
to judge)
- Drawer cap [amount]: count immediately after any
  large sale; at the cap, drop into the drop safe,
  never turning your back on the floor mid-drop
- Timing of drops: only on an empty floor after the
  customer has left - never count cash where a
  customer can see it
- Large notes the drawer cannot break may be declined
  at night: notes above [change limit] can be
  politely refused - the rule lives here so the
  employee does not improvise it at 3 a.m.

Section 2 - After-dark entry levels (every trigger
must be decidable)
L1 Normal service: ordinary shopping, ordinary
   ringing up
L2 Heightened alert - triggers (any one raises the
   level):
- [N] or more people entering together and splitting
  up in the aisles
- Face coverings, helmets, hoods kept up indoors
- Loitering past [minutes] without taking anything,
  repeated glances at the register and the camera
  positions
L2 actions: take the position behind the register;
  make one cash drop; serve in a normal tone; no
  challenging eye contact
L3 Escalation - triggers (any one):
- An L2 situation plus any of: closing distance to
  the register, questions about the cameras or the
  safe, an attempt to enter the staff area
- Direct verbal threat or a weapon shown
L3 actions: trigger the [alarm method] silently;
  lock the side doors and leave the checkout lane
  the only open path (where the store allows remote
  locking, name the button's location); give up on
  stopping anyone and move to the preset safe
  position

Section 3 - Robbery rule (one rule only; drill it
and test it)
- People before money: hand over cash and stock, no
  resistance of any kind
- No chase, no exit - pursuing out the door is
  where post-robbery injuries happen
- The aftermath order is fixed: alarm, then the
  store manager, then the manager reports upline
- Footage: flag and export the incident window at
  once so it cannot be overwritten; touch nothing
  until police arrive

Section 4 - Incident log (every shift, "none"
included)
Four fields: time / situation (with the L level) /
action taken / outcome. Filed with the handover
sheet next morning; the manager reviews L2 and
above weekly.

Prohibitions:
- No "bravely intervene" or "cleverly stall" advice -
  a solo shift has no duty to intervene, and this
  SOP will not imply one
- No statute numbers or fine amounts; anything
  touching legal responsibility reads "follow local
  police and company guidance"
- No equipment brand names or model numbers; alarm
  and camera gear is described by function and
  trigger location only
- Store details I have not provided (layout,
  equipment, hours) are left as [ ] for me to
  fill - never invented
- Every action must be decidable and drillable -
  "stay alert" and "be careful" are banned because
  nobody can be tested on them
- No preamble or purpose statement; start at
  Section 1

Why it is written this way

The drawer cap is fixed and drops happen only on an empty floor because the main amplifier of robbery loss is the cash sitting in the drawer, and the least reliable thing on a solo night shift is a small in-the-moment decision - "should I do a drop now" at 3 a.m. always loses to "in a minute." With the cap written in, the employee only executes: count after a large sale, drop at the line. Restricting drops to the empty floor keeps drawer contents and the drop motion out of customers' sight - some customers are casing the store, and that exposure is itself the risk.

All three levels use behavioral triggers, because "suspicious" cannot be trained and behavior can: group size, loitering minutes, face coverings are objective actions a reviewer can replay against camera footage. Crossing the line turns the gut call of "this group is wrong" into a lookup. "No challenging eye contact" is listed separately because it is the only line in the whole SOP about tone, and it gets made physical too - no locked stares, no questioning, just finish the service; most conflicts start with the response, not with the other party.

The robbery rule is a single line because the more that section says, the less of it survives the moment it is needed. People before money is the one version that becomes a reflex; "no chase, no exit" stands as its own sentence because pursuing out the door is where post-robbery injuries happen, and money inside the counter with a person outside the door are two completely different incidents. Banning "bravely intervene" is not a wording preference: a solo employee has no duty to intervene, and writing it in amounts to suggesting staff trade their safety for inventory - this prohibition is the SOP's value ordering itself.

The "none" line in the incident log separates "nothing happened" from "nothing was recorded" - a blank log can be either. Weeks of L2 entries accumulating is what supports adjusting the deep-night hours, adding hardware, or asking the company for a second night body; without the log, the manager walks into a budget meeting holding an impression, and impressions have never carried a budget meeting.

Variables