Billing for your sweet shop and bakery in Assam
Pitha by the piece, laru by the packet and the day's bakes counted on one phone.
Til laru, tel pitha and narikol laru: a Bihu shelf sold at one price
The Bihu packets all cost the same, so the customer picks by eye
In the Bihu weeks the shelf fills with til laru, narikol laru, tel pitha and gura laru in packets. They sell at close rates, so nobody asks the price, they point. The one that is most pointed at is gone by noon, and the frying pan in the back room goes on making the one that nobody wanted. You find out only when the tray is still full at night.
Rice flour, jaggery and til are bought for a month and used in a week
A sweet shop in Assam fills the back room for Bihu: sacks of rice flour, blocks of jaggery, til, coconut and a tin of oil for the pan. In a week the til is half gone, and the jaggery is nearly gone, and you do not know which until the pan stops. A call to the supplier at that hour finds the supplier already out of what you need.
The morning jolpan and the evening tea snack are two shops in one
The jolpan plate with its pitha is gone in a minute, and the evening biscuits and bread take their time. The lane pays for one of them, and you cannot say which. Should the counter open earlier for jolpan or stay open later for the tea snack? With one notebook column for both, you have no number to decide on.
Cachar paddy and Dhubri mustard: where an Assam sweet shop's flour and oil begin
A sweet shop's flour and oil come from fields and mills across Assam. A few districts, and what they grow.
- 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.
- Under the British, Tezpur became an important centre of trade and commerce, used as a river port for the surrounding tea gardens.
From the frying pan in the back room to the packet count at closing
Each Bihu packet counted as it leaves the shelf
Make each kind of packet its own item, even at the same rate. A bill takes one off the count in seconds. At closing the list shows how many til laru, narikol laru and tel pitha went out, and tomorrow's pan is lit for the one that sold, in the amount that sold.
The jolpan plate and the evening biscuits, read as two sales
At the end of the week the list shows which part of the day carried the counter, and the decision is yours: start the morning earlier, with the pan lit before the first plate is asked for, or keep the shop open later for the people who stop on the way home. A week of lists tells you which of the two the lane pays for.
The Wednesday list shows the til half gone and the jaggery nearly out
Looking at the list on Wednesday you see the til half gone and the jaggery nearly gone, two different orders in two different amounts. You ring the supplier that day, while he still has jaggery, and not on the night the pan stops.
Tools for a counter of pitha, laru and the morning jolpan plate
Bills on your phone
A bill for four til laru, a plate of jolpan and a pitha, made while the next customer is already pointing at the shelf.
Daily reports
The day's list of packets, plates and pieces, kept for every day of the Bihu weeks so they can be read side by side.
Godown stock
The rice flour, jaggery and til of the back room counted apart from the trays on the counter, so the pan is never started on a guess.
What Assam pitha and sweet shops ask about packets, plates and puja week
At the Bihu counter customers only point at a packet. Who needs to know the rate?
Nobody has to ask. Name each packet as its own item with its rate, and the helper taps the name the customer points at. The bill adds up and nobody remembers a price.
I keep the rice flour and the jaggery in a godown at home and only the trays in the shop. Can I see both?
Yes. The godown is one place and the shop is another, each with its own count, and you read both from one account. You see at the shop what is on the trays and at home what is left in the sacks.
Food-safety officers are inspecting stalls in Puja week. What do I show if they ask for my stock and bills?
Open the phone. The stock of flour, jaggery and oil is on the list and every day's bills are kept with their dates, so you show lists and not a bundle of papers. It does not replace any licence the officers ask for.
A Guwahati Bihu packet and a puja inspection
At Rongali Bihu 2016 in Guwahati, sweets sold in packets included til ladu, gura-ladu, tel-pitha and coconut ladu, most at Rs 50 a packet. When the packets sit at so near a rate, the shelf is decided by what the customers pick, and the counter learns that only by counting.
Ahead of Durga Puja 2024, Assam's Department of Food and Safety launched a series of inspections at food stalls across Guwahati. Puja weeks bring a crowd to a sweet counter, and a shop whose stock and bills are on one phone has fewer papers to look for in a busy week.