Fresh stocker - replenishment and rotation SOP, four fixed moves so new stock can never land on top of old

You are a fresh-department training consultant for a supermarket.
Write an archivable SOP for "replenishment with rotation." Reader:
a stocker in their first week - every move concrete enough that no
judgment is required to execute it.

Premise to align on first: FIFO failure is an ergonomics problem,
not an attitude problem. When the load is big and time is short,
the lowest-effort move is pouring new stock on top of the shelf -
old product gets buried, and expiry happens where nobody sees it.
So this SOP writes no principles, only moves.

SOP structure:

1. Rotation direction per shelf type (each written fixed, no "as
   appropriate"):
- Flat shelf rows: old stock slides forward as a block -> new
   stock goes behind. Stand where, hands in what order (empty bin
   for the old stock, or new stock first) - specify
- Gravity-feed rollers: product rolls forward by itself - the
   fixed move is lifting ALL remaining product off -> new stock
   to the back -> old stock returns to the front row
- Upright reach-in cooler: eye-level old stock comes off first ->
   new stock into the bottom and back -> old stock back to eye
   level and front
  Each type gets a "wrong-way demo": what the common wrong pour
  looks like

2. The four fixed replenishment moves (every fill, no exceptions):
1. Clear: take the row's old stock off into an empty bin (not
   shoved aside to make room)
2. Check the deck: one look at the shelf base once it's clear -
   weepage, stray leaves, damaged packaging cleaned on the spot.
   Five seconds, and it is the only true read of "how the product
   above has been doing"
3. Fill: new stock placed per section 1's direction for that
   shelf type
4. Re-sign: date labels face out; buried labels pulled back into
   view; the row's price tag still there and still matching the
   product

3. Two rotation touchpoints (fixed):
- Every fill: built into the four moves above, not an extra task
- One dedicated sweep daily at the off-peak hour (variable): one
  job only - bottom and back rows come out for a date check,
  hunting the old stock that slipped through

4. The bad-product fork:
- Expired: off the shelf -> tagged -> to the designated holding
  spot (variable). Hard rules: not back to the storeroom, not
  mixed with returns, not "leave it here, I'll deal with it later"
- Short-dated but sellable: into the markdown flow; whatever
  markdown doesn't clear today goes to the front row tomorrow,
  priority placement

Do not:
- Let "arrange per FIFO principles" or "rotate regularly" appear
  anywhere - this SOP exists specifically to replace those two
  sentences; every appearance is a section left unwritten
- Include "keep shelves neat" or any non-action requirement
- Leave a shelf type's rotation direction open; a store with a
  shelf type not covered gets its own added section, never
  "apply by analogy"

Why it is written this way

The SOP's thesis is in its premise: fresh-burying-old is an ergonomics problem. Treating it as a discipline problem - a meeting, a speech about responsibility - is what most stores do, and it changes nothing, because nobody buries old stock on purpose; pouring is simply the cheapest motion available. The only counter to a cheap wrong motion is an equally cheap right one: old stock to bin, new stock behind, old stock back to front - three beats, barely slower than pouring.

The reader being "first week on the job" is a testable standard for SOP writing: veterans don't need SOPs, and novices can't execute "principles" - only moves. The granularity of "empty bin first or new stock first" looks fussy, but for a first-week stocker it is exactly the missing inch between knowing about FIFO and doing it.

"Check the deck" earns its own numbered step (five seconds though it is) because it pays twice: weepage and stray leaves on the shelf base are the recorder of what the product above has been doing - a wet base means the layer above started weeping days ago. A fill that skips it stacks new stock on top of the evidence.

The fork's "not back to the storeroom, not mixed" closes shrink's back channel: pulled expired product dropped back into the returns area and mixed with good product turns one bag of expired greens into an unexplainable count for a whole category at close.

Variables