Billing for your supermarket in Manipur
A basket of many small things, a back room of cartons and a second branch: all counted on your phone.
Tools for a store with an aisle, a back room and a second branch
The whole shop in one place
The oil, the supplier who sends it and the next order for the carton, seen together in one place.
Many shops, one owner
Each branch's day is totalled on its own, so the cash box counted at night is matched with the right branch's bills.
Low stock warnings
The items whose aisle count and back-room count are both low, listed before the supplier's representative arrives.
Why a long basket slows the queue more than a long line of customers
A basket abandoned halfway through billing
A customer is called away at the counter, leaving half her basket billed. The cashier keeps the half-made bill, serves the next, and later the first customer returns. Nobody remembers where the first bill stopped. After the market closes the families of Imphal come in together, and the queue is longest just when the cashier is tired.
The branch in the hills asks by phone for a carton
The manager of the branch in the hills phones to ask for a carton of oil. The owner cannot say whether the town store has one, and a boy is sent to look. The branch waits, and the customer who wanted the oil is gone. A hill branch is a long drive from the town store, so a carton sent by mistake is a day lost on the road.
The women at the crates know the rates, and the new cashier does not
The women who tend the crates in your shop know every rate in their heads. A new cashier does not, and the woman who knows is at the far crates with a customer. The cashier calls across the hall, the answer comes late, and the queue grows behind a regular who says the oil cost less last time.
Ima Keithel, Imphal East and Moreh: the trade around a Manipur supermarket
Three places show the trade around a Manipur supermarket.
- Ima Keithel in Imphal West has about 3,000 'Imas' running stalls, and groceries stand on the same side as the vegetables, fruits and fish.
- Imphal East has 45,346 business establishments (Economic Census 2013).
- Moreh, the international trade centre of Manipur, lies at the southern end of Chandel, a border district with Myanmar.
- In Senapati, agriculture is the main occupation, with terrace farming of paddy, maize, cabbage and potato; 80% of the area is forest.
From the basket read line by line to the carton found in the back room
The feast host's rice by the sack, oil by the tin, vegetables by the crate
A host who feeds many guests asks for rice by the sack, oil by the tin and vegetables by the crate. Each is its own item with its own unit and rate, so the order is read back to him in the units he thought in, and the stock of each falls by the same sack, tin and crate.
The branch asks for a carton, and the phone answers before a boy is sent
The branch in the hills and the store in town each keep their own count. When the branch phones for a carton of oil you read the town store's count on your phone, and if it has one to spare the carton goes up the hill road. No boy is sent to look, and no carton is sent by mistake.
What is left in the crates at closing, seen before the board is wiped
At closing the stock of each crate is on your phone. You see what is left of the beans and the gourds before the hand-written board is wiped. Whoever wipes the board knows which crates still stand there, so the leftover beans are not forgotten under tomorrow's rate, and the grower is asked only for what is truly needed.
Women's groups' stock and bills moved off paper into one place
Questions Manipur supermarket owners ask
Can I see which of my two branches sold more oil on a market day?
Yes. Open that day for one branch and then for the other. Each shows its own sales, and you set the two oil rows side by side.
The dried fish and the packaged biscuits share one aisle. Can I read them apart in the report?
Yes. Each is its own item, so the daily report gives each its own row, and the count of the dried fish never mixes with the biscuits.
The feast host changes his order the night before. How do I put the bill right?
Cancel the first bill and make a new one for the changed order. His page shows both with their days, and the sacks, tins and crates follow the new bill. He reads the order back in the units he thinks in, and nothing is left from the first.
Police canteens and the Lamphel market in Imphal
The Centre announced 16 new Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandars open to the public in Manipur from 17 September 2024, eight in the valley, eight in the hills, beside 21 existing. A supermarket in Manipur has these stores as neighbours to compare its rates with.
Lamphel Super Market in Imphal has women vendors, some from Mao town; in 2017 the state minister said Manipur needs cold storage for perishables. A store that sells fresh produce has the same problem in its own crates.