Seafood stall buyer - the moratorium-to-open-season assortment switch SOP: how many days ahead to switch, what to switch to, and how to hand over to the front of house

Write an archivable "Moratorium Assortment Switch SOP" for a seafood
stall buyer. During the moratorium, wild catch supply drops and prices
rise; at season opening, supply recovers and prices fall. The two
switch windows run in opposite directions - write them separately.
No merging into one "seasonal adjustment."

1. Switch timeline
- Begin the transition [N] days before the moratorium: reduce the
  wild iced share day by day; no one-day cutoff - the cutoff day
  either stocks you out or leaves you holding high-priced goods
- The official calendar changes every year: the SOP says only
  "execute this table upon official announcement" and never hard-
  codes dates
- Warm up [M] days before opening, but take the first boat batches
  in small volume only: early boats ride longer trips and uneven
  freshness is the norm - recover volume in three steps, never fill
  the counter on opening day

2. Category switch table (columns: category / moratorium disposition /
  reopening batch / quality risk points)
- Moratorium mainstays: farmed fish, live freshwater fish, frozen
  (cold-storage stock), shellfish (lightly affected by the moratorium
  in most areas - fill this per local supply; where uncertain write
  "confirm with supplier, then fill." Never leave it blank, never
  invent it)
- Quality risk points must be concrete: ice glaze and re-freezing
  risk on frozen (signs: clumping inside the pack, uneven glaze);
  earthy-flavor complaints on farmed fish (species- and water-
  dependent; spot-check on arrival)
- Reopening order follows which fishing methods return first, not
  category preference - whichever boats come home first is whichever
  supply stabilizes first. Ask the supplier; it differs every year

3. Handover to the front of house (columns: action / owner / when /
  how to verify)
- One day before switching: sync category changes and price direction
  to the owner and floor supervisor - which items disappear, what
  replaces them, which price cards change
- Regular accounts (restaurants, monthly settlement) get their own
  notice: flag supply changes ahead of time; never let them lock a
  menu and then find the item gone
- Counter reshuffle: shrink the wild iced zone during the moratorium
  to make room for shellfish and frozen; reverse at reopening.
  Photograph the layout on switch day so next year restores by photo
  instead of memory

4. Red lines (break any one and the order is cancelled)
- Unsure whether farmed or wild: do not buy. Get caught passing
  farmed off as wild once, and the word "wild" on your stall is
  finished
- Wild catch of unclear origin during the moratorium: do not touch.
  The compliance risk is yours and the quality has no guarantee
- Re-frozen product (clumping, uneven glaze, heavy ice slush in the
  bag): do not buy - if you can't tell on the spot, walk away from
  the order

Format: tables throughout, every action carrying owner / when / how
verified. Once archived, pull it out each year on the official
announcement day, revise dates and categories, and do not rewrite it
from scratch.

Why it is written this way

The moratorium switch is a lane change, not a volume adjustment: the whole supply structure swaps layers - what you sell, the channels you buy through, the price cards you hang. Switch early and the last high-priced wild catch depreciates in your freezer the day the moratorium lifts; switch late and your anchor items stock out mid-morning, handing the traffic you spent months building to the stall next door. Hence "day-by-day transition": the transition window is the buffer itself, and a one-day cutoff throws the buffer away.

The reopening side gets its own "three-step volume" and "order by returning boats" - that is what separates this SOP from a generic seasonal-adjustment template. Opening day is a ramp, not a switch: boats by different fishing methods come home in waves, and the early boats ride longer trips with uneven freshness - ordering full on the instinct that "season's open, restore everything" spreads a shaky lot across your whole counter. Asking the supplier for the boat-return rhythm beats guessing from the news.

The first red line - "unsure of farmed vs. wild, don't buy" - is written heaviest because the retail premium is real and the credibility is one-directional: get caught labeling farmed as wild once, and the customer doesn't doubt that one fish - they re-price every label on your stall. Promoting it from "note" to a one-vote "do not buy" gives the buyer standing at four in the morning, facing a supplier's "absolutely wild" guarantee, an exit that requires no judgment: can't verify, don't buy - always right.

"Confirm with supplier, then fill - never blank, never invented" targets the SOP genre's chronic disease: writers leave the uncertain parts empty or filled with guesses, and executors can't tell the solid parts from the soft ones. Admitting "this one needs asking" is more honest than pretending "this one is settled" - and more useful.

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