Billing for your mobile and electronics shop in Madhya Pradesh
The phone, the TV and the repair on one bill, and the part payment on one page.
Indore, where the wholesale trade sits beside the shop
Wholesale and retail sit close together in one Madhya Pradesh district, and the others buy from it.
- Indore is called a commercial capital, and soyabean is a kharif crop grown in most of the district. The shops of this commercial capital are where many other towns' counters buy their stock.
- Zari Zardosi, embroidery made with lustrous metallic threads by generations of skilled artisans, is Bhopal's One District One Product. A family dressed in zardosi for a wedding buys the phone to photograph it, and the TV to watch the video.
- Jabalpur is home to the Gun Carriage Factory and the headquarters of West Central Railway; Bhedaghat nearby is known for its marble rocks. A railway and a factory bring salaried families who buy a TV or a washing machine in parts.
Tools for a mobile and electronics counter in Madhya Pradesh
Bills on your phone
A tap for a phone, a tap for a charger and a tap for six metres of string, and one bill goes to the customer.
GST bills
The bill with GST that a family wants for a washing machine bought on Dhanteras, made while it waits.
Daily reports
The sales of each model on the big day, read at night to choose next year's stock.
Orders to suppliers
Orders for light strings placed with the wholesaler before Diwali, with what arrives noted against them.
A day when phones, TVs and ACs all sell at once, and Diwali lights sold by the metre beside them
The one day when a phone, a TV and an AC all sell at once
Some days of the year bring the whole town to the electronics shop together. One customer takes a phone, the next a washing machine, and a third family stands waiting while you write the model of a TV on a pad. The line grows, the helpers shout prices to each other, and at night you match the pad to the cash and cannot say which model walked out of the door first.
The balcony measured in feet, and a pad that forgets the sum
Before Diwali a customer wants lights for her balcony and says its length in feet. You work out the metres, and then the price, all on a pad. A week later she comes back for a little more, and nobody can say how much she took the first time.
The cart of covers and chargers at the door
A cart by the shop door sells phone covers, chargers and earphones for small sums, one customer after another. Each sale is a few coins into a tin. At night the tin is counted, the box on the cart is filled again from the shop's shelf, and the two never meet in any book.
Bills in seconds on the big day, the string cut to the customer's length and the cart's small sales summed
The nickname at the counter becomes the name on the bill
At the counter a TV is 'the big one' and a phone is 'the blue one'. Put the model and the size in each item's name, and the helper taps the item the customer points to. The bill carries the full name and the shelf has a count against it, so the Dhanteras evening does not end in a quarrel about which model went.
Feet at the balcony, metres on the bill, and a part-paid TV on the same page
The customer measures her balcony in feet. You convert once, enter the metres of light string, and the bill says metres. The reel goes down by the same length. The TV she took on Dhanteras with part of the money paid sits on her page beside it, and she settles both together.
Bills made before the cart leaves the lane
On the big day three sets leave the lane on carts before the shop shuts. Make each bill before its cart moves. At night the three bills are already in the day's total, and the evening's yardstick is a figure and not a guess.
What mobile shop owners in Madhya Pradesh ask
A dealer from a small town comes to the Indore lane for covers and chargers at the trade rate. Can the same cover have a shop rate and a trade rate?
Change the rate on the dealer's bill. The list keeps the shop rate for the walk-in customer, and the dealer's page shows each lot he took at the trade rate. His few never hide the shelf.
How do I know whether my Dhanteras grew faster than the town's?
Open the same date a year before and read both evenings, then set the change in your electronics sales beside what you hear the town's electronics did that day. If you grew by less than the town, the difference is the evening to look at.
The same buyer takes a TV today and an AC next month. Does the AC go on the same page?
Yes. Open the buyer's page by name. Each sale is a bill under it with its own day and its own GST. When the AC month comes, the TV bill is still on the page, so you know him.
GST cuts and exchange offers on Indore's Dhanteras 2025, and a yardstick for a shop's own evening
Mobile phones, 55 to 65 inch TVs, washing machines and ACs were the best-selling electronics on Indore's Dhanteras 2025, and dealers credited GST cuts and exchange offers. A counter that keeps the 55 inch and the 65 inch TV as two items sees on that night which size the families took, and orders the next lot by what is gone.
A phone shop in Indore has a yardstick for its own evening: that same day, the town's electronics and vehicle sales rose 20 percent on the year before, even as its whole business fell about 25 percent to around Rs 150 crore. The shop opens its report for that day and for the same date a year before, and sees whether it grew faster or slower than the town's electronics.