Understand
Name the customer, the trip, and the operating reality before touching anything.
The operator path
Run the next shift better.
No theory for theory's sake. Start from the problem that's costing you money this week, and follow it to the zone where the fix lives.Pick your pain
Start with the problem you own.
Zone 08
My food program loses money.
Holding windows, waste logs, and the trial loop that finds the leak.
Go to the zone →Zone 04The cooler never looks right.
Rank the doors by velocity and give the best sellers the center.
Go to the zone →Zone 10Lines kill my rush hours.
The counter audit: what earns space, what slows the queue.
Go to the zone →Zone 11Age-restricted rules worry me.
ID policy, placement rules, refusal logs — documented, not assumed.
Go to the zone →Zone 12Deliveries eat my mornings.
Delivery cadence, invoice checks, and one home per category.
Go to the zone →Zone 13I don't trust my numbers.
Twice-daily counts, morning reviews, and shrink you count instead of guess.
Go to the zone →The method behind every playbook
Navigation, not a score.
Prepare
Work the readiness questions: equipment, labor, safety, economics.
Try
One offer, one daypart, one measurement window. Small enough to stop cleanly.
Review
Judge against the questions you set. Stop, fix and re-run, or scale — in writing.
Featured playbook · Zone 08
Plan a prepared-food trial that teaches you something.
The four-stage loop plus the readiness questions — with a checklist you can run today.
Open the playbook →45 field checksAudit your own floor, zone by zone.
Three practical checks per zone. Walk the store with your phone and see what the walk sees.
Start the audit →50 state profilesKnow your state's rulebook.
Alcohol, tobacco, lottery, programs — the rules change at every border. Find yours.
Open the map →