Billing for your fruit and vegetable shop in Delhi
The flat's usual bag, the dhaba's morning list and the loose kilo all go on one phone at that day's rate.
Tools for a cart or a shop whose morning starts at the wholesale yard
Bills on your phone
Lemons by the piece, coriander by the bunch and potatoes by the kilo on one bill, sent to the number the flat gave.
Credit book (khata)
Two pay rhythms on one cart: the flats' pages settled every Sunday, the dhaba's page left running to the last day of the month, each delivery dated on both.
Daily reports
Kilos of greens that went before noon on the hot days of last June, read before you decide how much to buy for this one.
Orders to suppliers
At night the unsold kilos of greens and soft vegetables on the cart are read first, and the agent's order for tomorrow is cut by that number. What arrives at dawn is noted against it.
Godown stock
The godown's potato and onion count that holds still all day, apart from the cart's soft vegetables that fall bill by bill.
From seven bags and seven rates to the potato sacks that wait in the godown
Seven bags in a week, seven rates, and one total the family can read
Each day's bag for the flat is its own bill at that day's rate, and all seven sit on the flat's page. On Sunday the page is sent on WhatsApp, and the family sees that the tomatoes were dearer on Wednesday. The total on Sunday is the sum of the seven bills.
Onions by the sack for the dhaba and by the kilo for the flat, from one heap
Make onions an item by the kilo for the lane, and a sack of onions its own item at its own rate for the dhaba. Each has its own count. The dhaba's dawn delivery goes on its own page with the day, and the flats' kilos never get mixed into the dhaba's sacks.
The potato sacks in the godown and the cart's morning load are counted apart
Potatoes and onions keep for weeks and sit in a godown, while the soft vegetables go on the cart each morning. Count the godown and the cart as two places. When you load sacks onto the cart the godown's count falls and the cart's rises, so you always know how many sacks are left before the next trip to the yard.
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Farm groups that put their stall bills and their online shop in one place
Why a Delhi cart's coriander wilts by eleven in June, and the flat's bag is never written
Coriander and greens that wilt on the cart by eleven in the June heat
In May and June the leafy greens, coriander and mint lose their freshness on an open cart before noon. A bunch that sold at one rate at seven sells at half by eleven, and by two it goes for nothing or into the bin. The cart has no record of which hour a bunch went at which price, so the greens look like a profit on paper and a loss in the cash box.
The usual bag for the fourth-floor flat, paid for on Sunday
A few flats in the lane do not choose each day. They want the usual: a kilo of potatoes, a kilo of onions, tomatoes, a bunch of coriander, whatever is good. A boy carries the bag up, and the family pays on Sunday. Six bags, six different rates, and one total that is said aloud on Sunday and argued about on Monday.
The dhaba sends its list at night and takes the vegetables at dawn
A dhaba or a small canteen in your lane sends its list the evening before: onions by the sack, tomatoes by the crate, greens by the bundle. You set it aside and deliver it at dawn, and the dhaba pays at the end of the month. By the third week you cannot say, for certain, how much of the dhaba's month you have already delivered.
Questions Delhi vegetable sellers ask about the usual bag, the online list and the fixed rate
The flat sends the boy back for one more bunch of coriander. Is it worth the walk for one bunch?
One bunch costs the lane seller a minute and a walk back to the cart. Make the second bill, but tell the boy the next order should carry the coriander with the rest.
At the yard, do I pick the flats' kilos first or the cart's loose stock?
The flats' lists placed overnight are on your phone when you leave. Pick their kilos first, as they are already promised, and buy the cart's loose stock after, with what is left of your morning.
A flat wants its bag at one rate all week, whatever the yard does. Can I do that?
Yes. You choose the rate on each bill, so you can hold the flat's bag at one rate for the week while the cart's rates follow the yard.
The onion rate rose between the dhaba's night list and my dawn delivery. Which rate does it pay?
The rate you agreed with the dhaba. If that was the night's rate, change the rate on that one bill, and the other bills keep the board rate.
The wholesale yards behind a Delhi vegetable cart
A 2016 report found pineapples from Nagaland, coconuts from Kerala and pomegranates from Maharashtra in the one auction yard at Azadpur. A cart in a Delhi lane carries a little of that, and the fruit on its board has come a long way before it is weighed.
At Azadpur mandi, commission agents extend credit to traders and large suppliers, and trust is the key to the yard's business, said a 2016 report. A seller who takes goods from an agent on credit and gives credit to the lane's flats works with trust on both sides.
Delhi's major wholesale vegetable markets include Azadpur Mandi, Ghazipur Mandi and Okhla Sabzi Mandi, where tomato rates rose in July 2024 as rain hit supplies. When the rates at the yard go up, the cart's rates follow the same morning.