Billing for your kirana and grocery store in Gujarat
The pav, the harvest-time udhaar and the UPI messages, on one phone.
Sugar by the pav on a bill, travel snacks counted as they go, the year's masala on its own bill
The pav, the adhi and the kilo on one bill, the total shown
Peanuts, tea and sugar are each an item with a rate by the kilo. The boy types a quarter, a half and a whole, and the total appears before the paper cone is closed. A bill with a wrong figure is no longer the shop's quiet loss, because the screen has already added it.
The travel snacks counted as they leave the shelf
Each khakhra, thepla and chevdo is an item, and every bill takes its packets off the count. At the end of the rush the phone shows what is left of each, so the order for the days after Diwali is written from the count and not from a gap on the shelf.
The year's masala on its own bill, read again next spring
Make red chilli, turmeric and coriander separate items sold by the kilo, and bill the family's year of masala as one bill with three lines. Next spring the family's page shows what it took this year, and you can say, before it asks, how much it will need.
What a Gujarat grocery counter keeps on its phone, from the pav to the chilli lorry
Bills on your phone
The Diwali travel order, khakhra, thepla and chevdo, billed once and sent to the family's WhatsApp before the car is packed.
Godown stock
The sacks of chilli in the back room counted apart from the shelf in front, so the spring lorry's load is ordered against what is really behind the counter.
Daily reports
The chilli weeks of spring kept day by day, so next year you know how many sacks to bring in before the lorries get late.
Orders to suppliers
The order for red chilli, turmeric and coriander to the wholesaler, with what arrived written beside it, before the spring rush starts.
UPI payments
In the evening, the day's UPI money set beside the day's bills, so the two agree before the shutter comes down.
A pav of sing, the night before the Diwali holiday and a year of masala in one order: where a Gujarat kirana loses count
A pav of sing, an adhi of tea, a kilo of sugar, all added in a boy's head
Customers ask in the old measures: a pav of roasted peanuts, an adhi of tea, a kilo of sugar and a packet of khakhra. The boy at the counter weighs each into a paper cone and adds the figures in his head while the next customer is already talking. When the total is wrong by a few rupees, the customer pays it and the shop loses it, because neither of them wrote it down.
The evening before the Diwali holiday, when every family packs for a trip
Gujarati families travel in the Diwali break, and the night before they leave they come for khakhra, theplas and chevdo for the journey. Each family takes a dozen packets of this and half a dozen of that. The shelf empties in two hours, and the next morning the shop cannot say what to order, because nobody counted what went.
The year's masala, bought once in the chilli season
Many Gujarati families buy their spices for the whole year in one go: a sack of red chilli, turmeric and coriander, cleaned and ground. For a few weeks in the spring the shop sells more of these than all the rest. One order goes on a slip as 'masala' and a figure, the family comes to collect over three days, and the lorry that brings the chilli is late.
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Junagadh groundnut fields, Banaskantha potatoes and Ahmedabad bazaars: who shops at a Gujarat kirana
Three parts of Gujarat and the households that shop at a kirana there.
- 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.
- 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.
Self-help group goods that moved from paper bills to the phone
Questions Gujarat kirana owners ask about the pav, holiday snacks and the chilli season
Customers ask for a pav and an adhi. Do I need to type grams?
No. Type a quarter or a half against the item sold by the kilo, and the bill shows the weight and the total. The count of the sack falls by the same quarter or half.
A family buys a whole sack of chilli for the year but I also sell it by the pav. Can both sit on the shelf?
Yes. Keep red chilli as one item sold by the kilo, so a pav and a whole sack are both a weight on one bill. The count of the sack falls by whatever was weighed out.
A family packing for Diwali takes a dozen packets of khakhra and half a dozen of thepla. Do I count the packets or the weight?
Count the packets, because a packet is a unit: the dozen khakhra and the half dozen thepla are two lines on one bill. Keep the loose khakhra you sell by the pav as an item of its own, with its own rate by weight.
UPI at Gujarat's small shops, and a craft city's households
In September 2021 PhonePe said UPI and card payments worked at over 10 lakh offline stores in Gujarat, including small shops and kiranas. At a kirana that sells by the pav and the adhi, the evening is when the day's UPI money is set beside the day's bills.
Rajkot's Soni goldsmiths and silver craftsmen make jewellery, and the city is also known for textile printing and for metal and wood carving. The households of these craftspeople are everyday kirana customers, and a bill on WhatsApp can reach the workshop as easily as the house.