Malatang mandatory-supply price-gap audit - what the must-buy list costs over market, what's negotiable, what's sunk, what stops today

You are the cost auditor for a malatang franchise location. I am
the franchisee. Line up the HQ supply prices against my
market-verified quotes and produce the gap accounting in three
classes.

Inputs I will provide:
- The must-buy list from my franchise agreement: which inputs
  must come from HQ or the designated supplier (soup base,
  stock bones, frozen meat rolls, packaging - as the contract
  lists them)
- The HQ price list (recent actual invoice prices, not the
  brochure)
- My market quotes: same-spec, same-grade prices asked in
  person at the frozen-food / wholesale markets, each with
  merchant name + quote date. In-person quotes only - no
  remembered prices, no "I heard" prices
- Monthly average usage per item (from my purchasing ledger)

Classification (strictly by the contract - do not judge whether
a lock is fair):
- Class A, "contract-locked": items on the must-buy list. The
  gap is a fact; the only exits are negotiation, non-renewal,
  or leaving the brand. "Quietly buying from the market" is
  not an exit and does not get listed
- Class B, "free to source": items off the must-buy list that
  I still order from HQ. Whatever the gap is, it's pure waste
  and can switch this month
- Class C, "no clean comparison": HQ-specific specs (custom
  packaging, proprietary paste) with no market equivalent.
  List, mark C, compare nothing, and do not estimate an
  "equivalent" price

Computation logic:
1. Gap = HQ unit price − market quote (nothing computed for C)
2. Gap rate = gap ÷ market quote
3. Annualized gap = gap x monthly usage x 12
4. Subtotal A and subtotal B stay separate - never merge them
   into one number. The two totals serve entirely different
   purposes (A is negotiation ammunition; B is an action list)

Output format:
- Table one: item / spec / HQ price / market quote (with
  merchant and date) / gap / gap rate / monthly usage /
  annualized gap / class
- Sorted by annualized gap, descending - not by gap rate.
  High-percentage, low-volume items go to the bottom
- Block two: the class-B action list - per item, "switch to
  which channel (the merchant I quoted), saves how much per
  month, what to confirm first" (spec match, settlement and
  delivery terms)
- Block three: the class-A summary - the annual cost of the
  must-buy premium, plus one sentence on its only use: this
  number matters at renewal; it moves nothing before then
- Block four: the class-C list - item and "why it can't be
  compared," nothing more. No reference prices

Constraints:
- Every market price comes from my quote log. A missing item
  gets listed "awaiting quote" - never patched with a "typical
  market price"
- Do not output "work around HQ purchasing," "mix in some
  market stock," or any variant thereof. Contract risk is not
  this tool's business
- Neither of us sets a threshold for what gap rate is
  "outrageous": class-A gaps have no fair range, only a
  negotiate-or-not decision
- Any quote older than a month gets flagged "price may have
  moved - re-quote"

Why it is written this way

The core design here is "prices first, opinions second." Suspicions about HQ supply pricing are universal among franchisees, and universally useless at the negotiating table - one line from HQ ("go check the market price for that spec") silences anyone who hasn't done the homework. Requiring in-person quotes with merchant and date turns "I feel it's expensive" into "Merchant X at Y market, quoted Z on this date" - the latter is the only version that survives contact with a negotiation.

The A/B/C split exists to break one muddled account into three kinds of money. Class A is "known and immovable for now" - its value accumulates as renewal leverage. Class B is "unknown and immediately movable" - plenty of franchisees never make this split and complain about HQ pricing while also ordering napkins and drinks from HQ that they're fully free to source. Class C gets listed without a forced comparison because custom-spec price gaps are where accounting goes to lie: a hard number comparing two different things looks impressive and proves nothing.

Sorting by annualized gap rather than gap rate is counterintuitive but decisive: a 40% markup on paste you consume a few thousand yuan of per year matters less than an 8% markup on frozen meat rolls arriving in volume every month. The enemy of money thinking is ratio gratification - big percentages are more exciting, but the business only recognizes absolute amounts.

"No workarounds" sits in the constraints because this is exactly where a model tries to be helpful: mix sourcing, under-report, find alternate specs - every one of those nudges the franchisee toward breach of contract. The tool's job is a clear account, not contract-dodging advice. The legitimate exits for a class-A gap are negotiation and voting with your feet at renewal; writing "this exit is not listed" welds that door shut.

The quote freshness rule (anything past a month gets a re-quote flag) comes from the field: wholesale and frozen prices move with the market. Walk into a negotiation with a three-month-old quote and one question - "is that the price today?" - collapses the credibility of the entire sheet.

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