Billing for your supermarket in Himachal Pradesh
The homestay's weekly account, the godown downstairs and the weekend line, kept on your phone.
Shimla's bazaars, Kangra's valley and the Mandi crossroads, as a supermarket hears of them
A supermarket in the hills hears about other markets of the state from the customers who push a trolley through it.
- Shimla's main shopping areas are The Mall, Lower Bazaar for daily items, Tibetan Bazaar for imported electronics and fancy items, and Lakkar Bazaar for wooden crafts.
- Kangra's economy is mostly farming, with tea a vital crop around Palampur and Baijnath. Bir Billing is a growing hub for ecotourism and aero sports.
- Mandi town sits where National Highways 20, 21 and 70 meet, and the whole district depends on it for trade and commerce.
What a hill supermarket keeps on the phone, from the godown stairs to the counter
Sell to other businesses
In the apple weeks, a shop in an orchard village applies and you open its page. The rice, dal and oil that go up the road are written on it with the day, so you can see what stays owed until the apple money comes.
Godown stock
The godown on the floor below counted apart from the shop above, so the boy goes down the stair only for what is there.
Daily reports
A visitor weekend and an ordinary Tuesday each on its own line, so the next order follows what was really bought.
The homestay on a page, the godown counted on its own and Kangra tea weighed loose and sold in packets
Each homestay on its own page, the week's list added as it comes
Each homestay applies to buy from you on credit and you decide which ones. Every cook's list becomes a bill on the homestay's own page with its day. At the month's end the owner sees every week's list, and what he owes is one total on a page and not a quarrel about slips.
The stair is climbed only for what is down there
Keep the godown below as a place of its own on your phone, and the shop above as another. When a shelf runs low, look at the godown's count from the counter. If it holds more, send the boy down. If it does not, you already know to ask your supplier, and nobody has climbed the stair for nothing.
Kangra tea, weighed loose and sold in packets from one sack
Tea from the hill gardens comes to the shop in a sack. Some customers want a hundred grams, some a kilo, and the homestay wants it by the bag. The open sack stays on the counter for the loose buyers, the packets stand on the shelf for the rest, and the homestay's bag is weighed from the same sack. At the end of the week you can say how much Kangra tea went each way.
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The weekend line at the counter, the godown a floor down and the homestay that pays at the month's end
The homestay that buys its groceries by the week
A homestay up the slope sends its cook down every few days with a long list: rice, oil, vegetables, eggs, bottled water. In the season there are many such homes, and each has its own list and its own day. One cook is down on Monday, another on Thursday. The boys learn the days by heart, until a cook comes on the wrong day and the list has to be read from the slip in his pocket.
The godown on the floor below
On a hill road the shop is on one floor and the godown is on the one below, down a steep stair. Every time a shelf runs low someone goes down, carries up what he can, and comes back. Sometimes the boy climbs for nothing: the godown has none of what he came for, and the shelf stays bare while he climbs again.
The weekend line, and the Tuesday with no one
When visitors fill the town on a weekend, the line at the counter reaches the door and every family has a basket of snacks, water and things forgotten at home. By Tuesday the shop is empty and the same crew stands idle. You cannot say how much of the weekend's stock went and how much is left, so you order again on a hunch.
A handmade-goods mart that put its bills, stock and online store on one list
What supermarket owners in Himachal ask
Each homestay's cook comes on a different day with a long list: rice, oil, vegetables, eggs and bottled water. How do I keep the days straight?
Enter the list as the cook calls it out, with that day's date. Two homestays with the same list on different days are two bills on two pages, so the eggs of one are never charged to the other.
Tourists keep running in for things they forgot at home. Can I see which goods they ask for most?
Yes. Open the weekend's sales and read which items sold one or two at a time, the small things bought in a hurry. Those are the goods tourists forget, so keep a few more of them near the counter.
A homestay's cook comes back on the second day for the eggs and water he forgot. Can that bill sit under the same name?
Yes. Make the second bill under the homestay's name, and both stay on its page. You see what the cook took on each day and the total together.
Visitors in their lakhs, and where they spend
More than one crore tourists, 99,78,504 of them domestic and 28,239 foreign, visited Himachal Pradesh in the first half of 2023, up to June.
In June 2022, with Shimla hotels 90 to 100 per cent full, shopkeepers' sales fell almost 30 to 40 per cent; tourists spent mostly on accommodation, food and travel.