Billing for your fruit and vegetable shop, wherever the load comes from
The day's rate, the weight on the scale and the evening's unsold heap, on one bill on your phone.
Rates, heat and the heap that will not last till tomorrow
By noon the board is wrong, and the load was paid for at six
A fruit and vegetable shop buys at the mandi before the town wakes, and the price it paid sets what it can ask. Weather moves it within days. In May 2024 in Andhra Pradesh, untimely rains, extreme heat and lower production doubled vegetable prices in Vijayawada, and chilli, tomato and beans rose at the rythu bazaars. A shop that still shows the old rate gives away the difference on every kilo.
Whatever is not sold by evening is gone by morning
Tomatoes go soft, bananas ripen, leaves wilt. In the last hour the seller marks things down or throws them away, and neither is written anywhere. At the end of the week there is a feeling that the shop lost something, and no way to say what or how much. A shop in a hot town loses a different amount in May than in January, and a shop in a hill market loses differently again. Ripe fruit does not wait for a better price.
A handful given, and the crate runs out early
You buy tomatoes at the market by the crate and sell them by the handful. A handful is whatever the hand takes, and the customer's hand is bigger than yours. Through the day the extra goes out in a hundred small sales, and by evening the crate is gone sooner than the money says.
Tools for a counter where the rate is chalked fresh
Bills on your phone
One bag for the customer who wants a kilo of beans, a dozen bananas and a bunch of coriander, each priced the way it is sold. The new helper never has to know that a bunch is not a kilo.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the restaurant that settles on the tenth, kept apart from the family that settles on Saturday. The page shows what each took on every day of the month.
Orders to suppliers
The agent's list made the evening before from what the shelf still holds, and the slip checked when the load arrives.
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How the dawn load, the scale and the evening count fit together
The market that opens before you do
The wholesale market of fruit and vegetables opens before dawn, long before the shop. The load you carry back is all the day has to sell, so the morning's count is the most you will ever have. By closing the heap is a number you can read, and the difference from morning says what the day took.
Chhath's banana and apple trucks, and what is left the week after
Before Chhath, hundreds of trucks reach Patna's markets daily from across India, carrying bananas from Bengal and apples from Kashmir. A shop that bought both for those days can open the week after and see which of the two was left on the shelf and which was gone by the third day. Next year's load of each is bought from that line of sales, not from the feeling of a heavy week.
When the rate doubles, the board and the kilos both move
When the mandi rate of tomato or chilli has doubled overnight, the new rate goes into the item at once, so the board and the bill agree. The customer who took a kilo yesterday asks for a handful today. The sales of the first days show whether customers still take the kilo at the new rate or the handful, and how long the doubled week lasts.
Farmer groups who first sold only in the local market
Questions a fruit and vegetable seller asks, from mandi to counter
Rainy weeks spoil the greens faster. What should I hold less of?
Open a rainy week: the greens still on the shelf at night are the ones to hold less of.
The mandi agent gives me a slip for the load. How do I check it against what I ordered?
Send the order from your phone before the trip. When the load is on your counter, put the slip beside the order and see what is short.
The mandi slip says forty kilos of beans and the sack feels light. How do I check?
Write the order to your supplier before the load leaves. When the sack is opened, note the kilos that came on his page. A short sack is then a figure to show him.
Mangoes come in a short season and sell by the dozen and by the crate. Can I see how the season went once it ends?
Yes. Every day's sales are kept, so when the season is over you can open its weeks and see how many dozens and crates went out in each, then plan next year's buying from that.
Two far ends of the fruit and vegetable map: an island and an orange valley
In May 2023 onion, tomato, potato, eggs and packed milk were short in Nicobar for three weeks, and a few vegetable shops in Great Nicobar closed with nothing to sell.
Dambuk in Lower Dibang Valley is Arunachal Pradesh's 'orange bowl', known for Khasi mandarin oranges and an annual Orange Festival of Adventure and Music.