Billing for your supermarket in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Two counters, one stock, and a monthly basket that nobody has to total twice.
Two counters, one stock and a rate that changed overnight
The thin weeks and the packed week
Some weeks the rice is at the floor of the shelf and some weeks it is at the roof. The ship decides, and the store is never at its steady size. A count that is honest about both is how the next order is written well.
Four oils, and the family only says the oil
One family asks for the oil, another for the red packet. On the shelf there are four oils, each in two packs, and the name on the pack is not the name the families use. The cashier looks for the right line while the queue grows, and when she guesses, the wrong tin goes in the bag and is found only when the ship has gone.
A shelf of tins nobody has counted since the ship
After the ship has been unpacked and the pallets cleared, nobody has counted the tins on the shelf. The count in the book is last month's, the shelf is full of the new lot, and the old lot is somewhere behind it.
Tools for a store with aisles, a back room and a second shop
Godown stock
What is in the back room and what is in each aisle, counted apart, so that a gap in an aisle is a trip to the back room and not a call to the supplier.
The whole shop in one place
Products, stock, suppliers and orders in one place, so the list of what to reorder after the ship is read from the same screen that billed the day.
Low stock warnings
Aisle by aisle, a warning on rice, oil and sugar when their counts fall, so the order for the next sailing is written while the shelf is still half full.
Harbours, copra and the long shelf
A supermarket's shelf is a long line of goods that each came by sea.
- Port Blair has the Haddo, Wharf and Chatham harbours for ships to the mainland, about 1,190 km from Chennai and 1,255 km from Kolkata. Each aisle of a store is a list of loads that waited for a berth.
- Trade in copra, dried coconut kernel, has long been the mainstay of the Nicobar islands, which depended almost entirely on copra exports for outside goods (2010 report). Where copra paid for the goods that came back, a store's ration shelf is the same story told in rice and oil.
The first week of the month, counted as it happens
The festival helper at the second counter bills what he cannot place on the shelf
A helper hired for the festival weeks sits at the second counter while the experienced staff are busy at the first. He types a few letters of the name, sees the item with its rate and count, and bills it without walking the aisle or calling across the shop to ask where it is kept.
The new tin is entered when it is shelved
When the ship's pallets are shelved, enter the new tin with its new rate. The old tin keeps its old rate. The counter picks the item the customer holds, and each count goes down on its own.
A shop that reopens after refurbishing starts from a count, not a guess
When a shop closes for refurbishing, its stock is counted on the phone before the shutter comes down and again when it reopens. The difference is what went to the godown or another branch, and the new aisles start from a list and not from a guess.
Questions island supermarket owners ask about two counters
A tin of oil comes in two sizes from the same ship. Can a counter pick the right size fast?
Each size is its own item, with its name and rate, so the counter picks the one in the customer's hand and the count of each size goes down apart.
Two counters sell the same sack of dal at once. How is the count kept right?
Both counters sell from one count, so a sale at the first counter is already off when the second counter looks. A bare shelf at one counter is a bare shelf at the other, and nobody argues about it.
The ship brings the same goods at two rates in one month. Can the report show which sold more?
Each rate is its own item with its own count, so the report shows the old tin and the new tin in separate lines.
The ship has brought ten kinds of goods at once. How do I tell what went to the aisle and what stayed in the back room?
Note each carton against the supplier's page as you open it, then note the part you carried out to the aisle. What is left of the carton is the back room's count, and it was set at the moment of unpacking, not weeks later.
A carton of tins comes off the ship dented. How do I count in only the ones I can sell?
Add only the sound tins to the stock as you open the carton. If you will sell the dented ones cheaper, keep them as their own item at a lower rate, and the supplier's page shows what the carton held.
The Consumers Cooperative Stores of the islands
The Consumers Cooperative Stores (CCS), among the oldest institutions on the islands, refurbished its Aberdeen Bazaar shop and planned to refurbish shops at Bathubasti, Bambooflat and Wimberlygunj. A store with several shops keeps one stock list for each, so that a refurbished shop can reopen with a count in hand.
In March 2023 CCS opened a new shop at OngiTekrey in Little Andaman, so nearly 973 families no longer travel long distances for rations. A shop that serves a family's whole monthly ration is a shop that has to count every item the family takes.