Billing for your grocery and kirana store in Goa
A coconut by the piece, oil by the litre and a neighbour's credit page on the same phone.
Tools for a shop that sells coconuts, oil and rice side by side
Bills on your phone
Four coconuts of two sizes, a litre of coconut oil and a kilo of rice added up on the phone while the next woman is still unpacking her basket.
Low stock warnings
The coconut count seen at noon in the week the whole lane is cooking, so more can be sent for while the basket still has some.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the neighbour's rented flat, named by its number and kept from one Chaturthi to the next, so this year's week is read beside last year's.
Online orders
The shop's own page with its goods and rates, where a family sends its Chaturthi list three days ahead, so the coconuts and oil are packed for the eve.
A seller of women's group foods that gave up paper bills
Why a Goa grocery counter mixes up its coconuts, its oil and the visitors' small baskets
A coconut by the piece, oil by the litre, spice by the gram
A customer asks for two coconuts, a litre of coconut oil, a kilo of rice and a hundred grams of kokum. Four goods, four units, and four prices worked out on the back of an old bill. The owner is quick, but at the end of the day the coconuts in the basket and the coconuts on paper do not agree, and no one can say whether the basket or the paper is wrong.
A visitor's week of groceries bought a little at a time, and never seen again
Visitors who rent a flat for a few days come in every evening for something small: two eggs, a loaf, a packet of milk, a small bottle of oil, a bunch of bananas. They pay by phone and are gone by Sunday. A shop that is used to a family's monthly list finds that a hundred tiny sales add up on the pad to a number nobody trusts, and at the end of a busy week the owner cannot see what the visitors bought.
The neighbours' notebook that grows in the busy weeks
Many families in the lane take their month's goods on credit and settle when the money comes. In the weeks before a big festival they take more than usual, for guests and for the kitchen. The notebook has five pages for one family, and the owner has to find which page holds the first bill of the month before he can say how much is owed. The family waits at the counter while he turns the leaves, and the next customer waits behind them.
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From a basket of two coconut sizes to a visitor's evening bill paid by phone
The coconut basket counted at noon against the phone
At noon the coconut basket can be counted and set against the phone, and a difference between the two is a thing to look into the same afternoon, while the morning is still fresh. A coconut that went without a bill, or a bill made for the wrong kind, shows itself that afternoon and not at the month's end. Oil by the litre is checked the same way.
Visitors' eggs, bread and small bottles by QR, and what the next full week needs
Set the small things visitors ask for as items with a rate each: eggs by the piece, bread by the loaf, oil by the small bottle. The visitors pay by QR code. At the week's end the report shows which small things went and which stayed, so the next full week is stocked with more of the first and less of the second.
The Chaturthi guest week on a neighbour's page, set above the quiet weeks
A family with guests at home for Chaturthi buys far more rice, oil and coconuts in that one week than in a quiet one. Each bill goes on the family's page with its day, so the guest week sits above the quiet weeks and what is owed at the month's end is read from the page and not guessed from memory.
What a Goa grocery owner asks before starting
Yesterday's tender coconuts sell cheaper than today's. Can I give them a rate of their own?
Yes. Add yesterday's tender coconuts as an item with the lower rate, and enter the number you have left as its count. Today's tender coconuts keep their own rate and count.
A rented flat fills for a week and empties again. How do I know which flat is asking?
Open the page under the number she gave, the flat's number, and not her name, since the family in the flat changes. When she says the number at the counter you open the page, and her eggs, bread and oil go on it with their days.
A family leaves its Chaturthi list three days ahead and collects it on the eve. How do I keep it?
Make the bill when the list is left, in the family's name. The goods come off the shelf count that day, so the coconut that was promised cannot be sold to the next person who asks.
Chaturthi coconuts and the price that rose before them
Coconuts are a staple offering during Ganesh Chaturthi rituals in Goa, and demand typically surges during the festive season. A shop that sells coconuts by the piece can read each day's sales and see the surge as it happens.
When coconut prices soared before Chaturthi, the Goa State Horticultural Corporation sold Karnataka coconuts at Rs 45 each through its 1,250 outlets across the state. A shop whose supplier's rate changes can change the item's rate once, and each bill keeps the rate of its own day.