Billing for your supermarket in Karnataka
The vegetable section by the kilo, the shelves by the packet and the home orders in one place.
The weighed crate and the packed shelf, read apart, and the wholesaler's order
The weighed crate and the packed shelf, read apart in the day's report
Every vegetable is an item sold by the kilo and every packet an item sold by the piece. At closing, the day's report lists each of them with what sold, so the vegetable crates and the packed shelves are read apart. You see which half of the hall earned the day, and which only filled the floor.
A gap in the cash given to the half of the day it came from
At the shift change between the two counters, count the cash in the box and write the number down. At closing, the day's sales less the sales you read at the change give the second half. A gap then belongs to one shift, and the two cashiers know which half to look at.
Cartons and sacks leaving for a function, counted against the vehicle
A caterer's vehicle is loaded at the back with cartons and sacks. Read the bill as the loading goes, and the count on the bill matches what is on the vehicle when it leaves. The GST is worked out on the same bill, and the hall keeps its own record of the sale.
Tools for a hall of weighed vegetables and packed shelves
Low stock warnings
A warning on the packet at the far end of the long aisle that is nearly gone, before a customer walks the whole length to find it empty.
Daily reports
Sales of every item before a function, beside an ordinary day, so the next big order is stocked from numbers.
GST bills
One bill that carries the packed lines with GST worked out and the weighed crates beside them, each crate at its kilo.
Why a Karnataka supermarket has two kinds of shop under one roof
A weighed vegetable section and a packed shelf with a printed price
One half of the hall sells by weight: vegetables and fruit in crates, with hand-written price boards that change when the load comes. The other half sells packets, each with its printed price and its own shelf. The two halves are run like two shops by two sets of hands, and the owner sees them only as one drawer at the end of the day.
Two counters at the evening rush and one cash box to count
When the evening rush comes, both counters open and the shift changes hands in the middle of it. At closing the cash in the box is a little different from what the owner expected, and he cannot tell which counter, which hour or which customer the difference came from. The cashier who was there at six has gone home, and the one who took over does not remember.
A long shelf, and the packet that ran out at the far end
A hall has many aisles, and a customer who walks to the end of one for a packet that is not there remembers it. The helper who filled the shelf at nine did not note what was left in the back store. By evening the shelf is empty and the order for the wholesaler is still waiting for somebody to count.
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The districts that fill a Karnataka supermarket's shelves
A supermarket's shelves are filled from every part of the state, and its customers come from the same districts.
- Dakshina Kannada is famous for red clay roof tiles (Mangalore tiles), cashew nuts and cashew products, so cashew is on a supermarket shelf there.
- Tumakuru district has 9 APMC market yards, at Tumakuru, Tiptur, Gubbi, Sira, Huliyar, Pavagada, Madhugiri, Kunigal and Turuvekere, which are where produce for the hall's vegetable section may begin its journey.
- Kalaburagi is famous for toor dal (pigeon pea), and the district also has large limestone deposits.
- Silk is mainly grown in Mysuru district, in a state that makes nearly 70% of India's mulberry silk, and Mysuru silk is sold through KSIC.
Questions Karnataka supermarket owners ask
Some of my vegetables come through a collection centre and some from a farmer's field. Can the bill tell them apart?
Yes. Put the source into the item's name, such as collection centre or farm gate, and give each its own rate and count. The day's report then reads the two sources apart, and you see which one the families buy more of.
Can I see which aisle's packets are selling slowly?
Yes. Every packet is an item with its own line in the day's sales, so the ones that sit show as small figures and you can put them lower on the next order.
A crate of greens weighs less by evening because it dries. How do I keep the kilo count right?
Keep each vegetable by the kilo, and at closing weigh what is left in the crate and set it against the day's sales. Write the difference as a correction by hand, so the next morning begins from a number you trust and not from the morning's weight.
Where Karnataka's supermarket chains buy their vegetables
A 2017 study of 40 procurement managers found Karnataka's modern food retail chains buy 90 per cent of their fruits and vegetables from collection centres and 10 per cent from farmers' fields. A hall that buys at a collection centre buys in the same way as the big chains, and its vegetable section is a smaller copy of theirs.
Karnataka supermarket chains that buy at farm level pick suppliers on scale, capability, quality and safety, and their managers give the most weight to the safety of the produce. A hall that wants the same standard can ask the same questions of its own suppliers.