A markdown that arrives after the facing is already dead

Hardware and grocery both cut prices at the till without telling the plate. The extract then shows a line “moving” on Saturday after six quiet days. The owner reads demand. The floor reads a yellow sticker.

We ask for the markdown time, even if it is a pencil note on the manager’s pad. The plate splits the week: days at full ticket, days at the cut. A category mix review uses that split to decide whether the facing was wrong at full price, or only slow until someone remembered the sticker.

Book counters and gift rooms see the same pattern before holidays: a cut on the last weekend that is then used to justify the same order next year. The seasonal assessment exists to stop that memory. Last year’s last-minute sticker is not a range decision.

If you cannot date the markdown, we still draw, and we write “cut undated” on the plate. That sentence has ended more arguments than a guessed hour.