Most money a store loses never shows up as a loss. It goes out a few dollars at a time: a discount on top of a discount, a special that only discounts people who were coming anyway, stock nobody has sold since summer.
- Ask once a week: Where did we leak money last week?
- You get the three biggest leaks per store and for the business, each in dollars, with what to check
- Then ask about the one that matters: each page below is one leak
Ask your AI Where did we leak money last week?
This week's three biggest leaks
The three biggest dollar leaks last week (Monday to Sunday), per store and for the business, each with what to check.
- Every measure below is worked out for the week
- Each is its own figure in dollars; they are ranked, never added into one loss
- Stock sitting on the shelf (dead, expiring) is shown beside them, not ranked with them: it is money tied up, not money lost this week
- Write-offs and wrong prices come from the write-off and price-check answers
| Store | # | Leak | Dollars | Check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hollin Cross | 1 | Special gave more than it brought | $203 | early bird 7-9 against days without it |
| Hollin Cross | 2 | Hand discounts above the store's | $66 | who applied senior and coupon discounts |
| Larkmoor | 1 | Add-ons not sold (estimate) | $390 | coaching on the second item |
| Larkmoor | 2 | Stacked discounts | $25 | senior 10% on top of bundle deals |
Ask your AI Where did we leak money last week?
How to read a flag
- Same store, same hours. A budtender is only compared with the others at the same store - for discounts, in the same hours of the day. Mornings and evenings are different shoppers.
- Adjusted for how much they sold. Someone with 30 sales can look extreme by luck. Their figure is pulled toward the store's figure, less as their sales grow. A gap on the adjusted figure is a steadier reason to look.
- Two windows in a row. A person is flagged only when the gap shows in the period you asked about AND the period before it. One bad week is noise; two is a pattern.
- Counts beside every rate. Every rate comes with the raw count behind it. 2 returns out of 40 sales is 5% - and still only 2.
- A reason to look, never an accusation. A flag says where to look first. Often there is a good reason: a regular with a senior discount, a vendor day, a training shift.
The ten leaks
| Leak | The question it answers | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Discount rate per budtender | Who gives more discount than the others at the same store and hours? |
| 2 | Sales below cost | What did we sell for less than it cost us? |
| 3 | Discount stacking | Where did two discounts land on one item? |
| 4 | Specials that give away margin | Does our early bird bring people in, or only discount people who come anyway? |
| 5 | Staff discounts and hand discounts | Who applies senior, veteran and coupon discounts more than the others? |
| 6 | Dead and aged stock | What stock has stopped selling, and what is it worth? |
| 7 | Stock near its expiry date | What expires soon, and what is already past its date? |
| 8 | Voids and returns | Who has more voids and returns than the others? |
| 9 | Items per sale (missed add-ons) | Who sells fewer items a sale than the others? |
| 10 | Cash drawer over and short | Which drawers closed over or short? |