Daily floor walk & store safety checklist

What you need to know

The plain-English guidance that comes with this document.

• A two-minute walk prevents most shop accidents and inspection failures. Slips, trips and blocked fire exits are the classic convenience-store risks — a customer on a wet floor, a fire door wedged shut behind stock. A structured daily walk catches them before they cause an injury or an enforcement notice, and gives you a dated record that you check.
• It ties your compliance habits together. The floor walk is the natural moment to confirm the fridge temps got logged, the date-check happened, the refusals log is on the counter with a pen, and the Challenge 25 notice is still up. It's the "did we do our routines?" prompt — the glue between the other records in this pack.
• Fire exits are the non-negotiable. In a small shop it's tempting to stack a delivery in front of the back door "just for now." Don't — a blocked or locked escape route is one of the most serious and most common fire-safety failings, and it's what gets shops prosecuted after an incident. Check it every day.
• Do it at opening, and again if you can. A single opening walk is the minimum. Busy shops that re-walk mid-afternoon (peak spill-and-mess time) and before close catch far more. Different staff on different shifts spreads the habit.
• Record the fix, not just the fault. The value to you if anything ever goes wrong is showing you acted. "Spill by the chiller — cleaned and signed 08:15" is worth far more than a tick. Use the notes box for anything that needs following up and close the loop.
• Make it yours. Add the bits specific to your shop — the cellar steps, the ATM, the Paypoint queue, the hot food counter — and drop what doesn't apply. A walk that matches your actual layout gets done; a generic one gets ignored.