Billing for your bakery and sweet shop in Puducherry
Puffs by the piece, sweets by the kilo, the morning bake counted against the morning sale.
Why a Puducherry bakery's best hour is before nine and its worst is the evening tray
Baguettes at seven, croissants at eight, and nobody counts the order they leave the oven
The bakes leave the oven in a fixed order and the queue is at the door by the first. A baguette is hard by evening, a croissant is flat by noon. You bake the next day from a feeling, and you cannot say which bake went first or which was left. A baker who counts the bakes in the order they leave the oven can tell which came out too many.
The baguette that goes hard before the visitor's journey is done
A visitor who is leaving town wants a box with two baguettes in it. A baguette goes hard by evening, so she wants the freshest, not the one from the morning shelf. The box is closed in a hurry while the next person is already asking, and the wrong baguette is the one she opens on the road.
Tomorrow's early orders chalked on a wall that gets rubbed out
Regular customers call in the evening for baguettes and croissants for the next morning. The orders are chalked on a board by the oven, and the board is wiped by whoever cleans first. In the morning the baker is short of two orders and the customer arrives to find them not ready.
Coconut, groundnut and banana: what the outer regions send to a sweet maker's kitchen
A sweet maker in Puducherry cooks with coconut, groundnut and banana, and the outer regions of the territory grow them.
- Farmers in Yanam grow paddy, coconut, groundnut and pulses, and fishing and animal rearing are important side incomes.
- Mahe's fertile land suits paddy, coconut, black pepper, tapioca and banana, and coir making and handicrafts are important local industries.
Tools for a counter that sells puffs by the piece and sweets by the kilo
Daily reports
The Deepavali week opened day by day beside an ordinary week, with the boxes counted by the box and the sweets counted by weight on separate lines.
Low stock warnings
A warning when the cake slices or the sweets in the case run low at the evening hour, not after the stroll has passed.
Offers for regular customers
An offer for the family whose Deepavali box was asked for a week before last year, so the same family is asked first this year, while there is still room on the baking board.
From the first loaf of the morning to the Deepavali box with its mix written on the bill
The five o'clock count that fills the case for the Beach Road stroll
Make each bake its own item and add it when it leaves the oven. At five open the count of each and see what is left for the evening stroll on the Beach Road. The case is filled from the count, and the lower evening rate, if you set one, sits on its own item and not on the morning's.
A box the visitor cannot bring back
A visitor's box holds baguettes and croissants by the piece beside local sweets by weight, and the carrying box too. Close the lid on a box that is already right, because the visitor takes the evening bus and cannot come back to say that a line was missed. The bill on her phone is her record of the box.
Tomorrow's baguettes and croissants, off the wall and onto a page
The orders for tomorrow's baguettes and croissants used to be chalked on the board by the oven, and the board gets wiped. Put each order on a page under the caller's name, and the baker reads it from the phone at the oven. The bill is made when the customer collects.
Questions a Puducherry bakery asks about separate bakes, gift boxes and the café account
Can the phone tell me how long a croissant has been on the shelf?
No. It does not time a bake. Each bake is added to its count when it leaves the oven, and the day's sales show how many remained at closing. The clock stays with you.
A café takes baguettes every morning. Can I see which morning it took fewer?
Yes. Each morning's baguettes are a bill on the café's page with their count. Read down the page and the mornings with fewer baguettes stand out, so you know on which days to bake less for it.
How do I know the morning's bake covers the early orders already promised?
Each promised order sits on its customer's page with the item and the hour. Read the pages the evening before and add up the croissants and baguettes promised. Bake those first, then bake for the counter.
Baguettes, croissants and the Beach Road snack stalls of Puducherry
Puducherry still shows its French heritage in baguettes and croissants made with classic French baking techniques handed down through generations of bakers. A bakery here sells these beside the puff and the bun, and a baguette has a different rate and a different shelf life from a bun.
Street food vendors on Puducherry's Beach Road promenade serve a variety of snacks and sweets, says Incredible India. A bakery or a sweet shop near the sea competes with those stalls at the evening hour, and what it has is a counter, a glass case and a bill the customer can take home.