Billing for your dairy and milk shop in Gujarat
Shrikhand by the kilo, chaas in the heat and the morning card turned into a page.
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Shrikhand tubs in Navratri, summer chaas weeks and a housing society that lost its milk card
Shrikhand in the tub, sold by the kilo, by the cup and by the box
Shrikhand sits in a big steel tub at the counter. A family takes a kilo, a student takes a cup, and before Navratri and in the mango weeks of summer, the amrakhand goes out in boxes for a function. The rate by the kilo, the rate by the cup and the rate by the box are three different rates, and the tub is judged by looking into it.
The first hot week, when chaas and curd are gone by noon
From March the heat comes, and so do the buyers of chaas, curd and lassi. Cups and pouches that last a week in winter finish by noon, and the van has already left. By afternoon the shelf is empty on the hottest day and the cold box holds the wrong pouches.
A housing society's milk card with ticks, lost in the first week
The flats of a housing society take a pouch of milk each morning on a card with a tick for every day. Cards are lost, a tick is missed, a second pouch on Sunday is never ticked at all. At the month's end the pouches on the card and the pouches carried to the door do not agree, and each side believes its own count.
Banaskantha's cooperative, Ahmedabad's night food market and Junagadh's groundnut farms: the places behind a Gujarat milk counter
Three places a Gujarat milk shop hears about from its customers.
- Banaskantha is Gujarat's largest potato producer, and Banas Dairy at Palanpur, sold under the Amul brand, is Asia's largest dairy cooperative.
- Manek Chowk in Ahmedabad is a vegetable market in the morning, one of India's largest gold, silver and jewellery markets by day, and a food market at night.
- Junagadh's economy is mainly farming: over 65% of the area is under oilseeds, mainly groundnut and cotton, and the National Research Centre for Groundnut is here.
Shrikhand counted by the kilo and the cup, chaas set early for the heat, the card turned into a page
The tub counted in kilos, however the shrikhand leaves it
Make shrikhand an item with a rate by the kilo, a cup as a small fraction of it, and the box as a larger one. Each bill takes its weight off the tub's stock. At closing the phone says how many kilos are left, and tomorrow's order to the maker follows that, not a glance into the tub.
Chaas is gone by noon while the milk pouches are still full
In the first hot week the chaas pouch goes by noon, and the half-litre milk pouch goes at its usual pace. Each is its own count, so the phone at noon shows chaas nearly gone while the milk pouches are still full. You ask the van for chaas and curd, not for more of everything.
The society's secretary reads the month flat by flat
At the month's end the society's secretary asks what each flat took. Open the flats' pages one after another, each morning's pouch dated, and the secretary reads the month flat by flat. A second pouch on Sunday is a line of its own on the flat's page, so nobody needs the lost card.
What a Gujarat dairy counter keeps on its phone, from the shrikhand tub to the summer chaas
Online orders
A family orders a tub of amrakhand for a function from the shop's own online page, and the order lands on the phone the evening before.
Daily reports
Pouches counted by type, day by day, so the chaas of a hot March week can be read again next March.
Low stock warnings
The mark for chaas pouches set in March, higher than the winter mark, so the warning comes in the first hot week while the van can still bring more.
Credit book (khata)
A flat that loses its card loses nothing, because its page already holds every morning's pouch, each with its date.
Bills on your phone
The flat that rang up at six has a bill on its WhatsApp naming the shrikhand tub and the two chaas pouches, before the boy reaches the lift.
Questions Gujarat dairy shops ask about shrikhand, chaas pouches and the housing society card
A cooperative's 500 ml pouch and a private 500 ml pouch sit side by side. Can I see which my customers reach for?
Make each its own item, named for its maker and its size, with its own count. At the end of a hot week the two lines, side by side, say which pouch the lane prefers.
The cold box is full by noon on the hottest day. Which pouches should have had its space?
Open that day's sales and read the chaas pouches and the curd cups side by side. The one that was gone by noon is the one the cold box should be filled with first the next morning, and the one that sat is given less room.
Amrakhand is made only in the mango weeks and sold by the box, while the pouch sells all year. Do I keep it as an item all year?
Keep it as an item with its own rate per box. Out of the mango weeks it simply shows no sales, and when the weeks come round again the item, its rate and the boxes of the last season are all still there.
Gujarat's milk in numbers: the cooperatives and the pouch
Gujarat's milk procurement reached 250 lakh litres a day in 2024-25, five times the 50 lakh litres a day of 2001-02. A milk counter in the state sells into a market that has grown fivefold in under a generation.
Gujarat has 15,740 functional dairy cooperative societies, led by Amul's federation GCMMF with 18 district unions and over 36 lakh members. Many of the families who sell milk to the federation are also families who buy their curd and chaas from a nearby shop.
In April 2023 Amul milk retailers in Gujarat told the paper that GCMMF had not raised its commission on 500 ml fresh milk pouches. A retailer who sells pouches counts them one by one, because that count is what the day's earning depends on.