Billing for your fruit and vegetable shop in Meghalaya
A whole pineapple, a plate of slices, a crate of oranges and the grower you owe, all on your phone.
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A pineapple sold twice, Jaintia potato in two grades, and a day the road shut
Two items from one fruit: the whole pineapple and the plate of slices
Make the whole pineapple an item at a rate per piece, and the plate of slices with chilli salt another at a rate per plate. When a taxi party stops, you bill the driver's one whole fruit and the passengers' four plates together. At closing the report shows how many of each went, so you know how many fruits were worth cutting. A customer who asks for half a pineapple can be billed as one plate of slices, without opening a new price in your head.
Sacks of Jaintia potato graded into two items, the big for the hotel and the small for the lane
Make the big potatoes and the small ones two items, each with its own rate by the kilo. The hotel takes the big and the households take the small, so the count of each falls with its own buyer. When the sack is empty the report shows which grade the lane preferred, and the next sack is bought to that.
The rate of greens changed on the phone as the hillside slips
When the road shuts, the stall's rates move through the day while the neighbours guess low. Change the rate of each item on your phone as the supply tightens. Every bill after the change uses the new rate, and the bills before it keep the old, so the day shows the hour the rate moved.
Pineapple at the roadside, bamboo shoots with the first rains, and greens that stop at a landslide
Pineapple whole, and pineapple cut with chilli salt
On the roads out of the hills, travellers stop for pineapple. You sell a whole fruit to one, and for the next you peel it and cut a few slices and sprinkle chilli salt on them for a few rupees. The whole fruit and the plate of slices are priced differently, and by evening you cannot say how many fruits turned into how many plates. On a rainy afternoon the cut slices sell slowly and the peeled fruit has to be thrown away by night.
Bamboo shoots arrive with the first rains and do not wait
Fresh bamboo shoots come in only in the wet months, and a basket not sold in two days goes soft. So some are boiled and some pickled for the dry months. A customer wants them fresh, boiled or pickled, at three prices, and how many baskets went into the pickle jars is kept in your head, so in the dry months you cannot say how many jars there are or how many to sell.
When a landslide shuts the road, the baskets stop
The village greens come down on one road. If the hillside slips, nothing arrives for a day or two, and the rate of whatever is left on your stall changes by the hour. You are guessing at the price, and so is the neighbour with the same tomatoes and beans on her stall, and the one who guesses low is the one who loses by evening.
Potatoes in Jaintia, jackfruit in the Garo Hills, rice in Ri Bhoi
A vegetable shop sells what its own district grows, and these are three places where you can see it.
- In West Jaintia Hills about 70% of people live by farming. Potato, ginger, garlic and turmeric are the main cash crops, and the district is the home of Lakadong turmeric.
- Jackfruit has its own factory at Rongara in South Garo Hills. The unit opened in February 2024 and can process over 700 tonnes a year.
- In Ri Bhoi's Umling block the main occupation is cultivation, so many of the people at your counter grow what they eat.
Tools for a stall of greens, roots and hill fruit
Bills on your phone
One whole pineapple and four plates of cut slices with chilli salt, each at its own rate, on a bill the taxi driver can show his party.
Orders to suppliers
A page for each woman who brings bamboo shoots with the first rains, with the weight of every basket and what you paid her for it. Her page also shows the baskets that went soft, so the next morning's order is smaller.
Daily reports
The day the road shut, shown beside a normal day: what sold, and what was left on the stall.
A farmers' group that put its market stalls and online shop together
Questions Meghalaya vegetable and fruit sellers ask
Bamboo shoots come fresh, boiled and pickled, each at its own price. How do I keep the three apart?
Make three items, fresh, boiled and pickled, each with its own rate and its own count. When the first rains bring a big lot and you boil or pickle some of it, each count shows what is left in each form, so the pickle and the fresh shoots never fight for one number.
Pineapples come from different hills and taste different. Can I list them separately by where they came from?
Yes. Name each pineapple with its hill and give it its own count. The report then shows which hill's fruit the taxi parties took more of, and the next load you bring is from that hill.
Peeled pineapple spoils faster on a rainy afternoon. When should I cut the rate?
Peeled fruit does not wait in the damp, so cut the rate early on the afternoon bills, while the pieces are still bright, and not at the last hour when nobody comes. A lower rate early sells more pieces than a lower rate late.
Where Shillong's vegetables come from
In Shillong's markets some vegetables come from neighbouring states like Assam, but most are bought directly from local farmers (reported in 2012).
Shillong's Bara Bazaar is a big local wholesale market selling everything from betel nuts to vegetables, including local greens such as mustard leaves and bamboo shoots.