The Manager's Notebook

Nobody sent a memo

Same box. Same price. Less in it.

Move the price, or move the package. Only one of those would you notice. Eight of the 322 in the book:

Product	Was	Became	Change	Documented
Great Value paper towels price held at $14.97	168 sheets/roll	120 sheets/roll	−29%	2020
Angel Soft, mega roll	425 sheets	320 sheets	−25%	2022
Kellogg's Froot Loops	10.1 oz	7.9 oz	−22%	2024
Cottonelle Ultra Clean	321 sheets/roll	284 sheets/roll	−12%	2024
Frosted Mini-Wheats	18 oz	16 oz	−11%	2024
Frosted Flakes, family size	24 oz	21.7 oz	−10%	2024
Charmin Ultra Soft, super mega	396 sheets	366 sheets	−8%	2022
Cocoa Puffs, family size	19.3 oz	18.1 oz	−6%	2021

This record doesn't expire. Prices move. A package that went from 18 ounces to 16 went from 18 to 16 forever.

Free · right now · no email

Decode a shelf tag. Six taps.

Tap a number.

Snacks / crackers Aisle 9 · Shelf 4

Thin wheat crackers

8.5 oz box

$349

WITH CARD

REG $4.29

Unit price 50.5¢ per oz

0 041570 20 8 · 409-118

Six numbers on that label. Most people read one.

1

The big number

That's the card price. Or the app price, or the price after a digital coupon somebody has to load first. It's the number the tag is built to sell you. Read the tag for the condition before you read it for the number.

From item #193 · The Manager's Notebook

Get all 244 — $39 See what's inside

What's inside

496 pages. Read it in any order.

Eighteen chapters. Sorted by where you're standing when it applies to you.

Parts one & two · 244 items

The floor plan
and the 244

Why the milk is at the back, and what the first fifteen feet do to you
Which shelf height is rented ground, and what the rent costs
Where the arithmetic hides, department by department

Parts three & four

Reading your store,
and the exact words

Find your store's markdown day in three trips
Nine things printed on that tag. Two of them are yours
Ten scripted sentences — rain check, price adjustment, scanner error

Parts five & six

The record,
and the notebook

322 documented size changes, each with its year
Four blank forms, US Letter and A4, black and white
Every future revision, free

The Price Book form — twenty numbered rows, three stores side by side. — The price book

The Markdown Grid form — eleven departments by seven days. — The markdown grid

The Tag Decoder form — four blocks to sketch a shelf tag into, then nine questions. — The tag decoder

The Unit-Price Reference — one page of conversions. — The unit-price card

Twelve of the two hundred and forty-four

Here are twelve, word for word.

#6Choice is not a distinction. It is the middle of the road.
#49Misting adds water, and on anything sold by weight you buy the water.
#67A baby carrot is a whole carrot somebody cut down, and you pay double for the cutting.
#80In dairy, the front item is the oldest one, and gravity put it there.
#90Eggs are not sized by the egg. They're sized by the weight of the dozen.
#101The colour of the twist tie is a rotation code, and it runs alphabetically.
#123Eye level is rented ground, and the rent is documented.
#124The bottom shelf is usually where the arithmetic is. Bend your knees.
#162"Mega roll" is a name, not a measurement.
#184The bottom shelf of a checkout rack is at a four-year-old's eye level. Not an accident.
#188When the federal government checked, one item in thirty rang up at the wrong price.
#200More than half of Costco's operating income is the membership fee.

Who wrote this

He ran the store. Now he shops in it.

Ray Delaney, a man in his late sixties with a grey moustache, in a blue work shirt behind a supermarket service desk.

"I'm not going to name the chain I worked for. Naming one company would let every other company off the hook. The sign is different. The math is identical."

Ray Delaney — floor stocker at 19, store manager at 34, retired 2023

38

Years on the floor

244

Numbered items

322

Size changes on record

14

Day refund

The book

$39 once. Yours forever.

In your inbox in under a minute. Phone, tablet or computer.

The book — 496 pages, 244 numbered items, 77 figures, set large for reading
The Record — 322 documented size changes, each with its year
The Exact Words — ten scripted sentences for the service desk
The print pack — four forms, US Letter and A4
Every future revision, free

Fourteen days

Take it on two ordinary shopping trips. If it hasn't earned the $39 back, write to me inside fourteen days and I'll refund it. You keep the forms.

Digital edition1 EA

The Manager's
Notebook

496 pages · 244 items · 4 printable forms · lifetime updates

$3900

Unit price 8¢ per page

Get the book — $39

Instant download · 14-day refund

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Before you buy

Straight answers.

I already shop carefully. Is any of this new?

Decode the tag above and decide for yourself — that's why it's here with no email form in front of it. What the book adds is the view from behind the swinging doors: why the markdown happens when it happens, and what the store owes you when the tag and the register disagree.

I'm not good with computers.

Then it's the right book — the method runs on paper and a pen. There's a chapter on digital-only prices with the exact sentence to say at the desk to get the week's offers loaded for you, without an app.

Won't the prices go out of date?

Prices move; the book says so on page one. Structure doesn't. A dairy rack will hand you the oldest jug in 2030 the same as today — and every future revision is free.

What if it isn't for me?

Fourteen days, full refund, no questions. Email and the $39 goes back. You keep the four forms either way.

None of it is a secret. It's trade knowledge.

How to read a grocery store
the way I did for 38 years.

Same box. Same price. Less in it.