Billing for your kirana store in Silvassa, Daman and Diu
One kilo of rice many times a month, a whole wedding's ration at once, and the udhaar for each, on one phone.
The room tenant who buys a little every day, and the dal only one customer asks for
The room tenant buys a little, many times
Workers who came from other states rent rooms and cook for themselves. A kilo of rice on Monday, half a litre of oil on Wednesday, a packet of tea on Friday, each put on account on a different page of the notebook. When he moves to a cheaper room you are left with three scattered lines of a man who may not come back. If he does stay your customer, a page in his name already holds the three, one under the other.
One customer wants one dal, and you have run out
People from different states cook different things. One asks for a particular dal, another for a flour your supplier does not always send, a third for a mustard oil that sells slowly. Each is wanted by one community, never by the whole lane, so the shelf holds one packet of it and that packet is gone. The man walks to the shop where his community buys.
The shop at the edge of the haat ground
A shop at the edge of the haat ground has one overrun day and a long quiet after it. On the quiet days the shelves are thin and no supplier is due, and on the haat day the first hour sells out the lines that took a week to arrive.
From the haat-day basket to the shape of the month
The first hour of haat day sells out what took a week to arrive
The shop at the edge of the haat ground is overrun for one day and quiet for days after. In the first hour the lines that took a week to arrive are gone. Bill each family's basket as it is weighed, on the family's page, and the count after that hour shows which lines to ask the supplier for before the next haat.
A higher alert for the dal that brings the whole month's shopping
Each dal, flour and oil is an item with its own count. Set the alert higher for the dal one family wants than for the rice that everyone buys. A missing dal sends that family's whole month of shopping to the next shop, and a missing bag of rice does not.
The month's shape, read from the daily report
A kirana store that feeds rooms near the factories has a month with a shape: the shelves empty in the first week after the wage day and the sales thin out in the last. The daily report shows that shape day by day. Order the heavy lines before the wage day and the light ones after it, instead of the same order every week.
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Women's groups whose goods, bills and online orders sit in one list
Tools for a store that feeds rooms, villages and a coast of visitors
Credit book (khata)
A page for the tenant who moves from one factory room to another, kept open and dated wherever he goes next.
Low stock warnings
A warning that the dal one community asks for is nearly finished, before he walks to the next shop.
Orders to suppliers
The weekly order to the wholesaler timed so the lines are on the shelf before the haat, with what arrived noted beside it, so the first hour's sell-out does not meet a bare floor.
Questions kirana owners in Silvassa, Daman and Diu ask
A worker in a rented room buys a kilo of rice many times a month. Does every small sale need a bill?
Yes, and it takes seconds. Each sale goes on his page with its date, and at the month's end he can check the whole list item by item.
A flour that only one family buys sells slowly. Can I see which lines are slow before I order again?
Yes. Each flour, dal and oil has its own count, and the daily report shows which fell and which did not. The ones that did not are the ones to leave out of the next order.
A stall-holder at the weekly haat wants a sack of rice and a tin of oil on credit, and sells them again on haat day. Can he apply?
Yes. He applies to buy on credit and you say yes or no. His orders and what he owes sit in one place, apart from your counter sales, ready to be read on the day after the haat when he pays.
The supplier's second van comes on Wednesday, before the haat. Can I note it apart from the weekly order?
Yes. Note what the Wednesday van brought against its own order, so the lines that came for the haat show apart from the week's main lot.
The cook for a village feast comes back on the morning for more rice because more guests came. Where does the second lot go?
On a second bill under the same name. The family's page shows the first lot and the second, and the payment is written when it comes.
The tribes of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and the weekly haat at Dudhani
Dadra and Nagar Haveli is the homeland of more than one lakh people of various tribes, mainly Varli, Kokna, Dhodia and Dubla, says the district administration. A village store here serves families who have lived on the same land for generations, and knows each of them by name.
Villages in Dadra and Nagar Haveli hold weekly bazaars for trade, such as the Dudhani weekly haat held on Thursdays in an open village ground. The shop that sits beside such a ground has a busy day each week and a quiet one after it.