Billing for your grocery store in Assam
Tea by the packet, rice by the sack and the udhaar of every family, on one phone.
Jute in Nagaon, tea in Cachar: where an Assam grocery's customers earn
A grocery counter sells to whoever earns nearby. In Assam that changes from district to district.
- Nagaon is one of Assam's main jute-producing districts, and the Assam Co-operative Jute Mills, the country's only co-operative jute mill, is at Silghat in Nagaon.
- Cachar is known for its tea plantations; paddy, vegetables, pulses and tea are grown on the plains along the Barak river.
- Dhubri depends mainly on agriculture and forest products; paddy is the main income and jute and mustard seed are the major cash crops.
- Incredible India describes Tinsukia as Assam's industrial powerhouse for tea, oil, coal and commerce.
Haat day, garden pay day and the grocery counter that rides between them
The busy day used to be the haat day
A grocery near a tea garden or a weekly haat learns one rhythm of the week and builds its stock on it: more rice and oil on the day the money moves, little on the rest. When that day shifts, the shelf is wrong twice, empty on a busy day and full on a slow one, and nobody told you the day had moved. Your notebook shows only what was written, not what was missed.
The family has money in the bank and none in the hand
A garden worker's wage reaches a bank account, but the card has not come, or the bank is far, or the line is long. At the counter the mother wants rice and tea today. You know the family and you say yes, and the udhaar grows by a few notes a day. By the time the money is out of the bank, nobody agrees on the total, and the family feels cheated at the very moment it is paid.
Tea time sends ten people in ten minutes
In the early morning and again in the evening the tea hour sends ten people in ten minutes: a hundred grams of tea from the sack, a little sugar, biscuits, a packet of milk powder. Each sale is small and fast, and none is written. The long sales of the night go in the notebook. At closing the cash is right and the notebook is full, and you cannot say how much tea went in the tea hour.
From the wage-day page to the rice sack counted before the haat
The paper cone of tea, billed before it is folded
A hundred grams of tea is scooped from the tin and weighed on the brass scale. Make the bill on the phone while the cone is being folded and the next customer is already pointing. At closing, the small sales of the tea hours are in the day's list beside the long ones, and the cash in the box can be matched to it.
The new busy day, read from the old bills
When the wage day moves, the crowd moves with it, and nobody tells you. Every day's sales are kept, so you open the last few weeks one after another and see which day now carries the line. Then you send for rice and oil against that day and not against the day you used to count on.
Tamul and betel leaf by the piece, tea by the gram, on one bill
A house that expects guests asks for a few areca nuts, some betel leaves and a hundred grams of tea. Make each its own item, tamul and leaf with a rate for one piece and tea with a rate for a kilo, and the bill for the whole handful comes out in one go. The shop counts pieces and grams on the same phone.
Tools for a counter that sells tea by the packet and rice by the sack
Credit book (khata)
When the garden's pay day moves to a new date, the family's page shows which weeks fall before the new date, so you and the family agree what is settled first and what waits for the next pay.
Daily reports
The weeks after the wage day moved, set side by side, day against day, to find the new busy day.
Low stock warnings
Tamul and betel leaf shown as running low before the weekend when guests come, while the supplier can still bring more.
Women's group goods that moved from the haat table to a phone
What Assam grocery owners ask about wages, haat sellers and the rice sack
A garden family's wage waits in the bank while its rice and dal are taken today. How do I keep the account straight?
The wage goes to the bank on its day, but the family may not draw it that day, so the rice and dal taken today wait on its page with their day. When the money is drawn the family can pay a part and leave the rest on the page. Part payment is normal here.
The tea hour empties the small packets by seven. How do I know in the evening which to bring for tomorrow's first rush?
The morning tea hour will ask for the same packets again, so what ran out by seven is what the supplier hears of first. Look at the evening's list for the packets gone before the tea hour was over, and put those at the head of tomorrow's order.
How much Joha rice do my families really take against the ordinary rice in a month?
Joha costs more per kilo, so a family takes a little of it, a kilo or two beside the ordinary rice, for a guest or a festival, and the ordinary rice carries the month. Read the month's kilos and you see how many families took the dearer rice at all, and how much. That tells you how much Joha to keep.
Tea garden wages, the haat and the grocery counter
In Assam tea gardens like Hoolungooree near Mariani, workers' wages once flowed almost ritually to weekly haat sellers. Digital wage payment has changed the haat's rhythm. A grocery near a garden feels the same change, because the busy day it counted on is no longer tied to the day wages were handed over.
Without smooth digital payment, many Assam tea garden workers press managers for cash wages. About 48 percent of worker account holders still lacked ATM cards in 2020. For a grocery this means a family's money can sit in a bank account that is hard to reach, while the next week's rice has to be bought today.