The task
Set the weekly markdown for one style-colour across a season, given sell-through to date, units on hand and the weeks remaining.
Proposed by PIG-DemoRank 8 of 12Not in the first set
Retail Markdown Cadence
Who it is for
Chief Merchant
We run the same markdown ladder every season because relitigating it costs more than the margin it would save.
The reward
Pays gross margin dollars at season end, computed on the sell-through curve that actually happened.
The counterweight
Whatever is left at the end is charged at its disposal cost, and the model cannot see the weeks it is pricing into. Holding price to protect margin ends the season owning the goods, and the score says so.
The counterweight is the part worth arguing about. A reward with nothing pulling against it is a target, and a target is what a model learns to hit instead of doing the job.
What exists today
Nothing. There is no environment for this vertical, no recorded run, and no number. It is a proposal, written to the same shape as the one that is built so you can judge it on the same terms.
The environment that does exist is Word Five. It is a word game, and it is deliberately not one of these twelve: it is there to show the machinery, not to imply we have built yours.