Fruit buyer - wholesale market inspection checklist - flip the box bottom, re-weigh the net, check the stems; three gates before you talk price

You are an old-hand wholesale produce buyer coaching a fruit shop. Build me
an inspection checklist I use on my phone, standing in the market at 4 am -
one case takes thirty seconds, and only after it passes do we talk price.

Checklist requirements:
- Exactly 12 items, three columns each: what to check / how (a concrete
  action) / what to do when it fails
- Ordered by the physical flow of inspection: eyeball the whole case first,
  then crack one open, then the scale
- "How" must be an action, not a standard - "check color uniformity" does
  not count; "pull the middle case, lift off the top two layers, look at
  the fruit sitting on the bottom" does

Cover these, expanded into 12:

I. Eyeball the case:
1. The box itself: damp, crushed corners, stain marks on the outside -
   stains mean rot underneath or a thawed-and-refrozen load
2. Grade label versus contents: a case marked Grade 1 - look through the
   open top: is size and color actually uniform? (Mixed grade gets
   negotiated at mixed-grade price)
3. Origin and lot: when the same item is priced far apart, ask whether the
   lots differ in origin before deciding if the expensive one deserves it

II. Open and sample:
4. Case sampling: a fixed sampling rate (how many cases per lot - leave
   the ratio as a variable); inspecting only the case the vendor hands you
   is not inspection
5. Bottom and corners: flip to the bottom - crushed fruit lives on the
   bottom and in the corners
6. Stems: blackened, dried stems mean the fruit was picked days ago;
   however fresh the surface looks, it is old stock
7. Feel points: two or three per category - berries for weeping juice,
   stone fruit pressed at the shoulder, melons knocked for a dull thud
8. Inner packaging: how much the paper liner, ice bottles and water pads
   weigh - know it, because all of it sat on the scale and comes off next

III. The scale:
9. Watch the weighing: the whole lot gets weighed while you watch - a
   shortweight claim made in the market stands; the same claim back at the
   shop is a fight you lose
10. Tare: pull one case and weigh the net - basket, liner, ice bottles all
    come off; only the net fruit counts
11. Damage settlement: bruised and rotten fruit found in sampling gets
    settled on the spot, by ratio - money back or replacement, never "sort
    it out later"
12. Evidence: photograph the delivery slip and the spoiled finds - it lines
    up with the manager back at the shop and settles the monthly account

Output format:
- A 12-row, three-column table that scrolls vertically on a phone
- One fixed footer row: "which items I skipped this run, and why" - small
  lots may simplify, but no undocumented skipping

Prohibitions:
- No "fruit is fresh" / "quality is good" conclusion-style rows - the
  checklist carries only actions
- No suggestions to use testing equipment - this is eyes-and-hands work and
  the checklist serves eyes and hands
- Twelve items maximum - at 4 am in the market, every extra row costs a deal

Why it is written this way

Inspecting at the wholesale market and receiving at the shop are different jobs: receiving is procedure (count against the slip), market inspection is craft (decide whether this case is worth this price). Craft can't be legislated, but it can be decomposed into actions - which is all this checklist does: every "an old buyer sees it in one glance" habit becomes a step anyone can perform. The judgment stays with the person; the actions go on the list.

Ordering follows the physical flow (eyeball, open, scale) because it is also the negotiation sequence: price talk happens after the case is open. Weigh first, open second, and your evidence arrives after the deal is struck. The checklist order is the bargaining rhythm - accumulate the findings (mixed grade, box-bottom rot, heavy tare) and walk to the scale with all of it in hand, settling everything in one pass.

Tare gets two rows (8 and 10) because it is the steadiest silent loss in fruit wholesale: ice bottles, water pads, thick liners, cartons that drank humidity - a case of "packaging" easily weighs a couple of pounds. Shops whose margins always feel a dollar short are usually short exactly here - the invoice price never lied, the weight did.

"Inspecting only the case the vendor hands you is not inspection" is written in ink because it is the gentlest trap in the market: the vendor cheerfully opens a case for you, and that case is of course the best one in the lot. Which case opens must be the buyer's choice - unwritten, a newcomer never learns that being helped and being played can look identical.

Variables