Billing for your sweet shop and bakery in Chhattisgarh
Khurmi by the kilo, thethri by the packet and a festival box made to order, all on one bill.
Tools for a counter of khurmi, thethri and sesame laddu
Bills on your phone
A mixed box of khurmi by the weight and thethri by the packet on one bill, totalled before the string is tied.
Orders to suppliers
A morning order to each group for its khurmi and thethri, with a note of what came in the baskets and from whom.
Low stock warnings
Besan and jaggery for the next frying flagged while the sack still holds enough for tomorrow.
Your own online shop
A page of the festival boxes you make, for the women of the neighbourhood group to forward to their relatives.
Daily reports
Today's sales tray by tray are on the phone before the glass counter is closed, so you know at the shutter how much khurmi and thethri is left.
From the frying pan at dawn to a tray each group can be paid for
A box of khurmi filled to the weight asked for, priced by the phone
Give khurmi its rate by the kilo and each kind of laddu its own. When a customer asks for a box of five hundred grams of khurmi and a few pieces of thethri, put the weights on the phone while you fill it and show her the total before you tie the string. The customer sees the weight and the total together, and nobody argues at the door.
Each group's khurmi its own item, so the day's sale splits by tray
Name the khurmi after the group that made it, and do the same for the thethri. Every bill names the one that was taken, and at closing the phone shows how much of each group's tray went. The women are paid on what sold, and no one has to trust anyone's memory.
Eight trays counted from the phone, and the one that sat three days named
At closing you do not count eight trays by eye through the glass. Each tray of khurmi, thethri, balushahi and laddu is a line on the phone. The tray that sat for three days shows in the report, and tomorrow's frying leaves it out. The oil and the flour for it are saved for what sells.
Why a khurmi tray goes out by the kilo, the box and the piece, and comes back as a guess
A kilo of khurmi is not the same number of pieces twice
Khurmi comes in batches, and a kilo holds a different number of pieces from one batch to the next. So the tray cannot be counted in pieces, and a box of a set number of pieces does not weigh the same twice. At night the trays are lighter than the notebook, and you do not know whether the difference was sold, eaten or given away.
Sweets from three home kitchens on one counter, and a day's sale to be shared
Some counters carry khurmi and thethri from more than one group of women, each woman bringing her own tray in the morning. At night the sale has to be shared out by whose tray sold, and the notebook only says khurmi, so the groups settle by guessing and each goes home sure that the other had the better day.
Eight trays in the glass counter, and a count by eye at closing
Khurmi, thethri, balushahi, khaja and the laddus each have a tray, and each tray is a different size. At closing you look at them and decide what to fry tomorrow. A tray that looks half full may be one sale from empty, and the one that looks nearly empty has been sitting there for three days.
A mandi town and cement country: who buys sweets across Chhattisgarh
Sweet shops serve a mandi town and the cement country around it, and the two buy in different ways.
- Baloda Bazar district has many cement plants fed by its limestone, and the Bhatapara mandi there is famous for crop buying and selling all year.
- Mahasamund has limestone and granite deposits, and several small industries use the limestone.
Questions Chhattisgarh sweet shop owners ask
A group's tray sold only half by closing. How do I know what to pay the group?
Read that group's line in the day's sales. It shows what sold, and the count left on the tray is what the group takes back or leaves for tomorrow. You pay for the line, not for the tray.
A gift box holds khurmi from one group's tray and thethri from another's. Whose money is it?
Each sweet in the box is a line, and each line is that group's own item. The box's total splits by line, so each group is paid for the pieces that came from its own tray.
Does Teeja lift the same sweet as Pola, or do I fry something different for each?
Read each festival's days in the daily report. The khurmi line and the thethri line show which one each festival lifted. Fry for Teeja from Teeja's numbers and not from Pola's.
Khurmi, thethri and the women's shop at Balodabazar
A Chhattisgarh shop that sells khurmi and thethri buys oil as well as flour, jaggery and besan. Khurmi is wheat flour kneaded with jaggery water and deep-fried, and thethri is fried besan with cumin and ajwain.
At the Gadh Kalewa opened in Balodabazar in January 2023, women self-help groups sell takeaway khurmi, balushahi, khaja, sesame laddu and curry laddu. A takeaway box of such sweets is a sale that mixes several kinds and weights in one bill.