Billing for your supermarket in Maharashtra
Thousands of items, a weekend queue and a back room that must match the shelf.
Short-dated bread, a Saturday queue and a back room that agrees with the shelf
The Sunday village family, read from last Sunday's page
The month-list of a Sunday village family is almost last month's list. Its page holds the previous Sunday's bill, so the cashier reads it with the family and asks only what changed, the new soap or a second kilo of sugar, before billing the basket. The family is back on the road before the afternoon bus fills.
Saturday evening: can the back room fill Sunday's village lists?
On Sunday the villages come with a month's list, and the cartons for it come out of the back room. Keep the back room as its own godown and the shelf as the counter. On Saturday evening you read both counts and know whether the back room still holds what tomorrow's lists will ask for.
Short-dated stock marked down on the phone
Check the bread and the curd that are close to their dates and put them at a lower rate for the last days. The bills show the lower rate and the daily report shows how many went at it, so you see how much was saved from the bin.
Tools for a store with a shelf, a back room and a queue
Bills on your phone
A basket of thirty items read from one price list, so the cashier never phones you to ask for a rate.
Godown stock
The rice sacks and oil tins for the Sunday lists are entered in the back room's own count as they are unloaded there, so you see how much came in for the village families.
Low stock warnings
Detergent, oil and rice are what the village month-lists ask for first. The phone shows which of the three is lowest on the shelf, so that is the one you look at first on Saturday, before the Sunday shutter goes up.
Offers for regular customers
An offer for the household that shops every Saturday, so it has a reason to come back to you and not to the next shop.
Online orders
The month-list sent from the village on Saturday arrives as one long order, and the cartons it names are carried out of the back room that evening, so the Sunday bus meets a packed basket.
Where the factories and farms behind a Maharashtra supermarket's shelf are
A supermarket shelf in Maharashtra is stocked from the work of many districts:
- Thane is third in Maharashtra for industry, and it makes chemicals, medicines, plastic and iron goods and powerloom fabrics.
- Pune district makes trucks, scooters, motorcycles and rickshaws and has 7 sugar factories.
- Nashik is called the Wine Capital of India for its grapes and wine, and is a major hub for onion and pomegranate farming.
- Jalgaon is a major business centre for tea, gold, pulses, cotton and bananas.
Why a Maharashtra supermarket's shelf, its back room and its price list stop matching by Saturday
Sunday, when the villages come to town with a month's list
On Sunday families come in from the villages around and buy a month of goods at once: oil in tins, rice in bags, soap, biscuits. Two brothers shop together and want two separate bills. The cashier divides the pile by hand while the queue behind them grows, and a wrong division shows up as a wrong drawer at night.
A back room that does not agree with the shelf
On Monday morning the staff restocks the shelf from the back room by habit, the same cartons as last week. The shelf needed two things that were not among them, and the back room still holds two cartons it did not need. The shelf is filled from the back room several times a day and nobody writes down which. By Saturday the shelf is empty of what sold and full of what did not.
Short-dated stock and the families on monthly account
Bread, milk, curd and packed snacks have dates, and the ones closest to their date should go first and cheaper. Nobody has the time to walk the shelf and write them down. Some families in a small town also take their groceries on a monthly account, and their bills are in a separate book at the cash desk.
Swateja Mart's outlets and the stock list they once kept on paper
Questions Maharashtra supermarket owners ask
The bread I marked down this morning sold out by noon. Can I see how many sold at the lower rate?
Yes. Make the marked-down bread its own item at the lower rate. The day's sales show how many went at the lower rate, apart from the full-rate loaves.
Some families pay once a month and their bill is in a separate book at the cash desk. Can the cashier see it at the counter?
Yes. Each such family has a page on the same phone, so the cashier opens the page, adds Sunday's basket, and nobody walks to the book at the cash desk.
Two brothers shop together and want two separate bills. Can I split the basket?
Yes. Make one bill for each brother and put each one's items on his own bill. Both add to the day's total, and each brother carries his own bill home.
A carton goes to the shelf at noon. Where do I write it so Saturday's count agrees?
Write it on the back room's count when it leaves and on the shelf's count when it is set out, at noon and not at night. On Saturday the counts agree.
Nagpur's wholesale yards and Ahilyanagar's cooperatives
Kalamna is one of the largest wholesale markets for oranges and grains in Asia; Sitabuldi is Nagpur's main commercial market. A supermarket in Vidarbha buys its fruit and grain from yards of this size.
Ahilyanagar is the largest district in Maharashtra, with 19 sugar factories, and sugar, milk and bank cooperatives flourish here. The sugar and milk on a supermarket shelf often come from cooperatives like these.