Billing for your organic store in Maharashtra
Farm-fresh boxes, Sunday market stalls and the farmer group's order, on one phone.
What an organic counter needs between the farm and the family
Online orders
A weekly vegetable box ordered from your own online shop, so the farm's morning buying matches the boxes already booked.
Orders to suppliers
A list for the farmer or farmer group for the coming week, written from what sold at the stall and the shop.
Many shops, one owner
The weekday shop and the Sunday market stall under one account, with the sales and stock of each kept apart.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the household that takes vegetables through the week and settles up at the Sunday stall.
Bills on your phone
Bunches of greens, a kilo of jaggery and a litre of oil on one slip, with the day's rate beside each line.
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The districts whose fields an organic shelf draws on
An organic shelf in Maharashtra is filled from the fields of a few districts:
- Nashik is a major hub for onion and pomegranate farming, and is called the Wine Capital of India for its grapes and wine.
- Kalamna in Nagpur is one of the largest wholesale markets for oranges and grains in Asia.
- Jalgaon is a major business centre for tea, gold, pulses, cotton and bananas.
- Ahilyanagar, the largest district in Maharashtra, has milk and sugar cooperatives.
A weekly box, a stall and a farmer who needs paying
Jowar by the kilo, jaggery by the piece and greens by the bunch
Millets are scooped by the kilo, jaggery is sold by the piece and greens by the bunch. Each is an item with its own unit, so the bill shows the thing as the customer asked for it, and the stock goes down in the unit you counted. Nobody weighs greens that were never meant to be weighed.
A weekly box ordered from the phone
Families who want a box of vegetables every week place it from your own online shop, and you see every order on your phone on the evening before you buy at the farm. You buy to the number of boxes, so less is thrown out by Wednesday.
A caterer's order of jowar, jaggery and oil in sacks, billed in the caterer's name
A caterer who feeds a family function orders jowar, jaggery and oil by the sack and the tin. Put each on one bill under the caterer's name, with its weight or measure and its rate. The bill goes to his phone, and the next function's order starts from the same page.
Why an organic store in Maharashtra is judged on Sunday and spoils by Wednesday
A Sunday stall that must match the shop
An organic store in a Maharashtra city often does two jobs: the shop on weekdays and a farmers' market stall on Sunday. The stall carries what came from the farm that morning, while the shop carries what came last week. When the two are mixed in the notebook, a customer who bought greens at the stall and comes to the shop on Tuesday for the same greens finds a different rate and asks why.
Jaggery, millets and oil, each in its own week, and no note on the lot
The jaggery comes in winter, the millets after the kharif harvest and the oil whenever the press runs, and none of the three comes with a paper. The farmer says a weight and a rate and goes. A month later the jaggery is half sold and nobody can say what the lot weighed when it came.
The farmer who must be paid on a fixed day
The farmers and the farmer group that supply you are small. They need to be paid on the day they bring the goods or the week after. Your own customers pay you in small amounts across the week. Pay from memory and one of them is paid late, and the one who is paid late is the one who stops coming.
Questions Maharashtra organic store owners ask
The Sunday stall and my shop sell the same greens at different rates. Can both be on the phone?
Yes. The same greens can carry the stall's rate on Sunday and the shop's rate on other days. Make the bill at the rate for the place where you stand.
Jaggery and millets keep for months and greens for three days. Can I see which is moving?
Yes. Each is its own item with its own count, and greens are the ones to look at every evening, since three days is all they have. Jaggery and millets can wait a week.
Two baskets of jaggery arrive on the same day from the same village. Do I note them together?
Yes. Note the delivery once on the village's page, with the day and the total weight. The stock of jaggery goes up by that weight, and two baskets that came together are one delivery.
Weekly farmers' markets in Pune and a Sunday market in Mumbai
In February 2025 the Pune Municipal Corporation, with World Bank and state support, announced weekly farmers' markets in Baner, Pashan, Bavdhan, Balewadi and Lohgaon to sell organic vegetables and fruits. A shop that sells the same goods is competing with, and learning from, a market on its doorstep.
Swami Samarth Farmers Producer Company planned a Sunday organic-only market from 12 December 2021 at Nariman Point, Mumbai, accepting only certified farmers, plus a wholesale market at Vashi. The plan shows that buyers in the city ask who grew what.