Braised-food stock clerk - the FIFO and markdown-tag SOP: when to front the case, when to swap tags, who approves which discount, and the three exits for what's left at close

Here is a user need. Expand it into an archivable "Display Case FIFO
and Markdown SOP" for a braised-food store, for stock clerks to run
daily - one A4 page, tables plus short lines.

Background (put it in "Scope"):
- Braised-food display case; product sells out same day or next day;
  produced and loaded in batches
- Every batch carries a label stating its production time (time label)
- Executor: stock clerk; markdown approval: shift lead (within a
  delegated limit); write-off approval: store manager

Four sections, rules as follows:

Section 1, Ordering (how FIFO actually runs):
- The time label is the only authority on what's older. Judging by
  "color depth" or "looks dry" is banned - case lighting shifts how
  product reads, and soy-braised categories don't carry a reliable
  color gradient to begin with
- Every restock = a full fronting pass: all remaining product moves
  forward, the new batch goes in back. Partial restock (dropping new
  goods into empty slots without touching the rest) is banned
- A batch with a missing label is treated as the oldest stock on the
  case: front row, sold first, and logged on the missing-label sheet -
  never relabeled from memory

Section 2, Markdown times (two waves, fixed):
- Wave one: [5 pm], same-day product not expected to clear through
  the dinner rush, discounted by [an amount the shift lead sets
  within the delegated limit]
- Wave two: [7:30 pm], whatever same-day product remains, deeper cut
- The tag swap: the clerk swaps the markdown tag and enters the
  markdown in the system; the two prices must match. The tag keeps
  the original price visible (struck through) - markdown tags showing
  only the discounted price are banned
- Authority: the clerk executes the swap; discounts beyond [the
  shift lead's limit] go to the store manager

Section 3, End-of-day disposition (three exits for unsold stock,
taken in order):
- Exit one, chill and sell next day: categories eligible under the
  store's own list get logged with batch and quantity and, next
  morning, treated as oldest per Section 1 and placed up front
- Exit two, staff purchase or another store-sanctioned channel:
  per store rules, logged
- Exit three, write-off: everything ineligible for the first two,
  on a slip stating item, weight, and reason, signed by the shift
  lead
- All three exits require a log entry. "Take it now, log it tomorrow"
  is banned

Section 4, Prohibitions (posted inside the case door):
- No marking down new product to skip the sorting - discounting new
  and old together hands margin away for nothing
- No tag/system price mismatch - the leading source of reconciliation
  gaps
- No undocumented write-offs, no backdated slips
- No folding old product into a new batch's row to save a fronting
  pass

Expansion requirements:
- Times, discount limits, and the resale-eligible category list stay
  as [] blanks for the store to fill
- Turn Section 3's eligibility into a "category / next-day resale
  yes-no / exit path" table header; the store fills the rows
- No "discount reasonably" or "use judgment" wording that hands the
  decision back to the executor - this SOP exists to eliminate
  on-the-spot judgment

Why it is written this way

Everyone at a deli counter can recite FIFO; it fails in execution because two questions never got answered: sorted by what, and which exit unsold stock takes at the deadline. Question one's answer is "the time label, and nothing else" - color judgment has to be explicitly banned because case lighting shifts how meat reads and soy-braised categories never had a stable color gradient, and every "looks about the same" judgment is another chance for old stock to impersonate new. Question two's answer is three fixed exits plus a log: an unlogged disposition is a non-disposition, and tomorrow nobody knows what hour that batch was born.

Markdowns split into two fixed waves rather than "discount near close" because markdown timing carries real value: the 5 pm wave targets the after-work dinner crowd and can still recover most of the product's worth; the 7:30 wave is clearance. Merge them into one vague moment and you either discount early for nothing or discount too late to sell. Keeping the struck-through original price on the tag is a trust design for customers - a tag showing only the sale price reads as an ordinary price tag, while the struck-through original is what says "this is a concession," which is the entire mechanism by which a markdown moves volume.

"No marking down new product" leads the prohibitions because it's the most common invisible loss in markdown execution: swapping tags for the whole tray to save a sorting step sells new goods at old-goods prices. Same logic behind banning partial restock - filling only the empty slots without touching the rest kills FIFO by the second restock. The legislative philosophy of the whole SOP sits in the last expansion requirement: eliminate "reasonable" and "flexible," the words that hand decisions back to the executor - the point of an SOP is that the newest part-timer and the three-year veteran make the same moves.

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