Billing for your fruit and vegetable shop in Puducherry
Kilo, bunch and piece on one bill, with the udhaar written beside it.
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Why a Puducherry stall loses money on cabbage before the afternoon sun is gone
The dear vegetable that goes soft first
Cabbage and cauliflower cost you more a kilo than brinjal or ladies finger, and the coastal heat softens them faster. A kilo that wilts by evening takes away the profit of three kilos sold. You sell it at a lower rate in the last hour, or you throw it, and in neither case is the loss written anywhere.
A lane stall beside the big market, and the shopper who compares heaps
The big town market is full of fresh heaps, and a shopper who has walked through it arrives at your stall already knowing a rate. She asks whether your cabbage is the same cabbage, and what you paid for it. You paid a different rate on a different trip, and nothing on the stall says so.
A few kilos each morning for the tiffin stall, and nothing written until Saturday
A small eatery sends a boy for onions, tomatoes and greens five or six mornings a week. Each errand is small and each is written on whatever scrap is near. By Saturday the cook counts the scraps, forgets one, and the stall loses a morning's vegetables without either side knowing which.
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Tools for a stall that sells by the kilo, the bunch and the piece
Bills on your phone
A bill that lists cauliflower and cabbage by weight at their own dearer rates, so a shopper who asks why the bag cost more can read it line by line.
Daily reports
Kilos of cabbage and cauliflower sold against kilos of brinjal and tomato, day by day, so the dearer vegetables are bought to what the stall really sells.
Credit book (khata)
The tiffin stall's page, with the week's onions as a bill-by-bill list sent on WhatsApp on Saturday, so the cook sees each bill when he asks why his total has grown.
Low stock warnings
A warning that the cabbage is running down before noon, so the second lot, at its own cost, is asked for before the board is bare.
From the morning market trip to the last coconut on the board
The stall's list of the day on a link the shopper reads before she walks
Put the day's vegetables on the shop's own page and share the link on WhatsApp in the morning. The shopper who has walked through the big market reads what your stall sells on her phone before she reaches the lane, and she asks about the cabbage and not about whether you have it.
The noon load is a second lot of cabbage with a rate of its own
A second load comes at noon at a different cost, and the cabbage on the board is no longer the cabbage you bought in the morning. Put the noon load in as a new lot, named for the trip, with its own rate. The shopper who compared heaps in the big market is told the difference plainly: the morning cabbage is one lot, the noon cabbage another, each with the rate it cost you.
The tiffin cook's mornings are the same three lines in different kilos
A small eatery buys onions, tomatoes and greens by the kilo, and the kilos change with the day's menu. Keep the three as items sold by the kilo, so each morning is the same three lines with a new weight. On Saturday the cook's tally is those mornings one after another, and there is no scrap left to argue about.
Banana in Karaikal, tapioca in Mahe, coconut in Yanam: where the stall's produce grows
The produce on a Puducherry stall comes from several kinds of land, and each region of the territory grows something different.
- Karaikal's farms grow paddy, cotton, groundnut, banana, vegetables and pulses, helped by the river that flows through the region.
- Mahe's fertile land suits paddy, coconut, black pepper, tapioca and banana, and coir making and handicrafts are important local industries.
- Farmers in Yanam grow paddy, coconut, groundnut and pulses, and fishing and animal rearing are important side incomes.
A farmers' group that brought its market stall bills into one place
Questions a Puducherry vegetable seller asks about dear vegetables, coconuts and tiffin shop udhaar
The noon cabbage costs more than the morning's. How long does the morning rate hold?
The morning rate holds until the noon load is opened. After that the dearer cabbage takes the new rate, and the heat is why the old one does not last.
In the last hour I sell the soft cabbage cheaper. What does coastal heat do to it?
The heat softens the outer leaves by evening and the cabbage loses weight, so the last hour's lower rate is the right call. Do not hold it for the morning.
In the coastal heat which vegetable should I carry lighter?
Open a hot week in the report and see which vegetable you still held at night. That one is the one to carry lighter the next hot week.
Cabbage on demonstration farms and the market at Goubert
Noticing rising demand for cauliflower and cabbage in Puducherry markets, the Agriculture Department grew them on six demonstration farms, using seedlings procured from Bengaluru. The cabbage and cauliflower on your stall are vegetables shoppers now ask for by name, and the department thought the demand worth growing for.
Goubert Market in Puducherry offers an abundance of fresh fruits, vegetables, spices and local handicrafts, says Incredible India.