Locations, Chains & Geography

Find a store in the list

1. Open Retail → Locations.
2. Type into the search box ("Search name, city, or chain…") — it matches store name, city, state, chain, address, market, approver, and distributor contact.
3. Click any of the sampling chips to narrow by recency: "All", "Never sampled", "Overdue", or "Sampled this quarter". Each chip carries a live count.
4. Click a row to open its detail screen.

The table shows "Store / Location", "Chain", "Store locator", "Sampling", and "Score". The metric strip across the top gives you "Locations", "Active", "Sampled This Quarter", "Chains", and "Needs Attention" at a glance.

Toggle a store on or off without opening it

Each row has two inline switches you can flip right from the list:

1. Flip "Store locator" to show or hide the store on your public "where to buy" map. You'll see "Store locator on" / "Store locator off".
2. Flip "Sampling" to let the Schedule Builder and open shifts use the store, or not. You'll see "Sampling on" / "Sampling off".

If a change can't save, the toggle flips back and you'll see "Couldn't save that change — try again."

Add a single location

1. Click "Add location" in the toolbar.
2. The detail screen opens on a draft named "New Location" with "Available for sampling" and "Publish to store locator" already on. Save-status reads "Unsaved changes".
3. Fill in the fields (below), then click "Save location". Nothing reaches the server until you save.

Edit a location's details

Open a store to reach its detail screen (back button: "‹ All locations"). The form is a vertical stack of cards:

1. Visibility (top): "Publish to store locator" and "Available for sampling".
2. Store card: "Store name", "Chain", "Street address", "City", "State", "ZIP". Open "Advanced & import details" for source keys, latitude/longitude, and time zone.
3. Store contact: "Contact name" and "Contact email" — the store-side person for this location.
4. Sampling approval: the guided routing flow (see below).
5. Distributor & rep: link a distributor org and rep (see below).
6. Internal notes and Ambassador guidelines (rules ambassadors see on every tasting here).
7. Ambassador documents: files for this store (see below).

Pick your "Chain" from the select — it is a selector, not free text. To create a new chain, choose "+ Add new chain…" and type into the "New chain name" box that appears; it's created on your next save.

Set the time zone and coordinates

1. On the detail, open "Advanced & import details".
2. Click "Find coordinates". If the address is too thin you'll see "Enter an address, city, state, or ZIP before finding coordinates."
3. On success the latitude, longitude, and time zone fill in and you'll see "Coordinates added to location."

If the address is complete and coordinates are missing, they'll be found automatically when you save — the status hint reads "Coordinates will be found on save when the address is complete."

Route approvals for a store

Open "Sampling approval" on the location detail. It's a guided flow — each answer reveals the next, so you can't create a contradiction.

1. "Do tastings here need approval?" — choose "Yes" or "No". "No" means tastings publish directly with no approval step.
2. "When is it approved?" — "Before booking" (ambassadors can't claim until approved) or "After the ambassador claims" (bookable now, store can decline after a claim).
3. "Who approves?" — "This store" or "An agency / chain".

• This store → "Use the store contact", or "A different person" (search an approver, or type a new email to invite).
• An agency / chain → set "Scope" to "The whole chain" (inherits the chain's approver) or "Just this location" (pick an "Approver agency" — pick the agency, not a person, so it stays right when their staff changes).

Once the store is saved, a resolved line tells you who actually approves — for example "Tastings here are approved by {name} — from {source}." If there's a gap you'll see "No one can approve tastings here yet" with a fix note.

Typing a brand-new approver email creates that account and emails an invite only when you click Save location — never on autosave.

Restrict when a store can be booked

Open "Availability / booking windows" on the location detail.

1. Click "+ Add window" — a default Monday 10:00-14:00 row appears.
2. Set the day, start time, "to", and end time. Times are the store's local time.
3. Add more windows as needed, or click "Remove" on any row.
4. Save.

No windows means the store is bookable anytime — the summary reads "No restrictions — bookable anytime" vs "{N} window(s) — booking restricted". Tastings can only be scheduled inside a window, and the Schedule Builder only suggests times inside them. Finish any half-entered window before saving, or you'll see "Finish the booking window (needs a start time before the end) to save."

Attach documents for ambassadors

Open "Ambassador documents" on the location detail. These are files ambassadors see on every tasting here — a parking map, a planogram, a check-in photo.

1. Use "Add a document" and choose a file — it uploads as soon as you pick it ("Uploading…" → "Uploaded.").
2. To remove one, click "Remove" on its row.

Save the location first if it's new — on an unsaved draft you'll see "Save this location first, then add documents."

Save or retire a location

• Click "Save location" to persist. Success reads "Location saved to store master." A blank name gives "Store name is required.", and an unresolved approval blocks the save with a specific reason.
• Click "Remove" to retire a saved store. Confirm at "Retire {name}?" — this removes it from the public store locator and the active locations list, but keeps existing bookings and lets an admin restore it later.

Bulk import, template, and export

Use the toolbar buttons on the Locations list:

1. "CSV template" downloads a starter sheet with columns Store Name, Chain, Address Line 1, Address Line 2, City, State, Postal Code, Sampling, Store Locator. It deliberately has no approver columns — who approves is set on the Chains page or the location form, not in the sheet.
2. "Upload CSV" imports rows. A store matches an existing one only on exact name + city + state. You'll get a summary like "{added} added, {updated} updated, {missing} missing from latest locator."
3. "Export CSV" downloads all locations across 25 columns whose names match the import, so an export re-imports cleanly for bulk edits.

Leaving out the Store Locator or Sampling column won't flip those toggles on matched stores — omission is treated as "no change," not "off."

Manage chains

Open Retail → Chains. Chains group your locations, and the approval routing and contacts you set here cascade to every member store unless a location overrides them. (Distributors vary by location and state, so they're set per location, not per chain.)

1. Click "New chain", or open an existing chain from the list.
2. Fill in "Chain name" (required), set "Status" (Active / Inactive / Archived), and add comma-separated "Aliases" so imports and search recognize the chain's other names.
3. In Approval defaults, set the "Approval context" (e.g. "Through agency / chain contact" or "Direct to store"), pick an "Event approver user" or enter "Approver name" / "Approver email", and optionally set "When does approval happen?".
4. Click "Save chain" — success reads "Chain saved."

The chain approver is what a store routed to "The whole chain" inherits. To delete a chain, use "Delete chain" — but a chain with stores is blocked: "{name} still has {N} location(s) — move them to the correct chain first, then delete."

Geography (briefly)

The third Retail workspace, Geography, rolls your locations up by market and territory and reflects how many stores are active for sampling. It also holds the ambassador roster — see the ambassadors guide for that.

Who can do this

• Admin / Owner — full access: add, import, edit, retire locations; create approver accounts on save; create, edit, and delete chains.
• Regional / Territory Managers — can write to locations and chains within their assigned geography; scoping is enforced on the People and Geography surfaces.
• Viewer — read-only across all territories. Viewers can browse and search but can't save changes; write actions are blocked server-side.