Billing for your supermarket in Gujarat
The member's rate, the farmers' lots weighed in at dawn and the evening list sent on WhatsApp, on one phone.
What a Gujarat supermarket keeps on its phone, from the Diwali hamper to the evening list
Offers for regular customers
A member's offer written on the member's page, so the cashier at any counter gives the same rate to the same person.
Online orders
A list from the shop's own online page arrives as an order before six, so the bag at nine matches the list.
Godown stock
The godown that supplies the shelves, counted apart from the aisles, so the Diwali hampers are made from what is really behind the store.
Daily reports
The hamper days of the Diwali week kept day by day, so next year's hamper order follows what moved.
The member's rate written on the member's page, the farmer's lot noted when it is weighed, the evening list picked from the phone
The member's rate written once on the member's page, found by the cashier in a tap
Give each member a page, and write the member's offer on it. When the member comes to the counter, the cashier opens the page and the offer is there, so the stranger who sounds sure is a stranger and the member is a member. At the end of the day the page shows how many offers were given.
The count right at opening, from the sacks and crates weighed in before the doors open
At opening the owner reads the vegetable counter's count, vegetable by vegetable, and decides what goes on the front table: the heavy sacks of the day first, the small crates behind. The count was made from the sacks and crates weighed in before the doors opened, so it is a number and not a look at the heap.
Two boys, six aisles and a bag that waits at the counter for nine o'clock
Two boys walk six aisles to fill the family's list before the nine o'clock collection. The bag stands packed at the counter, and the family has its bill on WhatsApp by the time it arrives. The oil is in the bag and on the bill.
A member's rate at the cooperative-style counter, a farmer's lot weighed in at dawn and an evening list nobody checks
Members and non-members at the same counter, and a cashier who must remember who is who
A store in a Gujarat town that sells to a society of members, as a cooperative supermarket does, gives its members a better rate on some goods. The cashier knows some of the members by face and not others. A member who is not recognised pays the full rate, a stranger who sounds sure gets the member's, and the evening count cannot say how many of each there were.
The farmer's lot weighed in at dawn, noted on whatever paper is nearest
A store that buys vegetables from farmers near the town sees the lots arrive at dawn, one after another, each in its own sack or crate. The lots are weighed on the floor and noted on a piece of paper, and by noon the pieces of paper are in three places. When the farmer asks what his lot weighed, the store has to remember.
The evening list that arrives on WhatsApp, picked from six aisles by two boys
The family's list reaches you on WhatsApp in the evening, kilos and packets in one message: a kilo of sugar, a packet of tea, a litre of oil. The family collects at nine, and two boys pick the list from six aisles while the shop is busy. When the last boy reads it, a kilo of sugar becomes one packet, and the bag is short by nine.
Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat: the Gujarat cities where a supermarket's families shop
Three Gujarat cities and the families who shop for the festival there.
- 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.
- Vadodara has over 35% of India's power transmission and distribution equipment makers, with an estimated 800 supporting ancillary units.
- Surat accounts for 70% of India's rough diamond cutting and polishing and 40% of its man-made fabric production, says the city corporation.
A women's self-help group shop that moved from paper bills to stock on the phone
Questions Gujarat supermarkets ask about member rates, farmers' lots and evening lists
For Diwali week the members' offer is bigger. Can I change it for a week and then change it back?
Yes. Change the offer on the members' pages for the week and again when it ends. Bills made during the week carry the bigger offer, and the bills before and after keep theirs.
The oil was missing from the bag. Does the member's offer still count on the rest?
Yes. The offer sits on the member's page and goes on every item that was packed. The missing oil gets no offer now. When it comes in, it is billed then, and the offer goes on that line.
In the Diwali rush the cashier cannot ask every shopper if she is a member. How does she know?
She searches the name or phone. A member's page opens with her offer, and the offer goes on the bill. If no page opens, the shopper is billed at the shelf rate.
Gujco Mart and the cooperative malls: the supermarket in Gujarat's towns
In October 2024 Gujcomasol, Gujarat's state cooperative marketing federation, opened Gujco Mart on Science City Road in Ahmedabad, the state's first cooperative supermarket. A supermarket in the state now shares its city with one built by the cooperatives.
The federation's president vowed to open 250 such cooperative malls across towns in Gujarat. That would put a cooperative supermarket in towns where a family-run one has stood on its own until now.