Billing for your fruit and vegetable shop in Punjab
Saag whole or cleaned, peas in the pod or shelled, and the winter kilo, all on one bill on your phone.
Why a Punjab vegetable shop is paid for the work it does at the stall as well as the weight
Saag sold whole, cleaned or chopped, and the same bundle in three forms
In the cold months the evening customer wants sarson, palak and bathua for the saag. Some take the bundle as it came, some want it picked clean, and some want it chopped, and the cleaning is work that your helper does while a queue forms. A kilo of whole saag and a kilo of cleaned saag do not weigh the same, because the stalks and old leaves picked away were weight you bought and cannot sell.
Peas in the pod weigh one thing and shelled peas weigh another
A kilo of peas in the pod gives much less when it is shelled. Some customers take the pods home and some want them shelled at the stall. The shelled peas have a rate of their own, and the shells go into the bin. If you note the pods on one slip and the shelled kilos on another, neither tells you what the winter peas really brought.
Cane bought by the bundle and sold by the glass
If you run a cane juice stall beside the shop, the cane comes in bundles and goes out in glasses. Ginger and lemon go in some glasses and not in others. By evening you have a count of glasses on a scrap of paper and a number of bundles in your head, and you cannot say whether the day made money.
Rice, wheat and grain markets behind a Punjab vegetable counter
A vegetable counter in Punjab feeds on what the farms and the grain markets around it do.
- Irrigated (borewell) fields in Sangrur follow a rice-wheat farming system, according to the PAU Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
- Bathinda grain market received 795 tonnes of paddy between 5 and 11 October 2026; rain wetted stock lying in the open.
Tools that fit a winter vegetable counter in Punjab
Daily reports
Kilos of saag in January and crates of kinnow in the first weeks after picking, each on its own line for each day, so the winter can be read again next year.
Bills on your phone
A bill that holds a kilo of whole saag, half a kilo of cleaned saag and a kilo of peas in the pod, with each line at its own rate.
Orders to suppliers
The order for sarson, methi and carrots from the grower, noted by weight when it arrives, so the cleaning starts from a known weight.
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A group of farmers whose stall bills and online shop came to one place
From a cleaned bundle of sarson to the last glass of cane juice
Cleaned saag at a rate that carries the helper's time
Make whole, cleaned and chopped saag three items with three rates by the kilo. The cleaned rate includes the time your helper spends picking, so you stop giving that time away. At the counter the helper picks the form on the screen and the amount comes with it.
Peas in the pod and shelled peas, each counted in its own kilos
Peas in the pod and shelled peas are two items. When you sell a kilo of each, the bill and the daily report keep them apart. At the end of the season you can see how many kilos went in the pod and how many went shelled, and you know whether the shelling was worth your helper's time.
The cane bundles bought, set beside the glasses sold
Make a glass of cane juice an item, with ginger and lemon as small items. The daily report shows how many glasses each day sold. Put that beside the bundles you bought the same day, and the evening note tells you whether a bundle gave enough glasses to pay for itself.
Questions a Punjab vegetable seller asks
A kilo of whole saag gives less once cleaned. How do I see how much is lost?
Put the bought kilos in as whole saag and the cleaned kilos as cleaned saag. Set the kilos taken off the whole against the kilos put on the cleaned; the difference is the loss.
The cane lorry came late and the stall opens short. What do I do?
Put in only the bundles that came as stock. Start the day with those, and when the stock says none, close the glass counter for the day. At night the day's glasses show how short the morning was, and next week's order can ask for a spare bundle.
I sell a saag kit with sarson, palak, ginger, garlic and green chillies in one bag. Can the kit be one item?
Yes. Give the kit a name and a rate of its own. If you also sell the ginger and chillies alone, they stay as separate items.
Kinnow country in the south-west of Punjab
Kinnow picking in the Fazilka and Abohar belt starts at December-end and in January, said Fazilka's Assistant Director of Horticulture. When the first crates reach a fruit shop, the crates are counted in and each day's sales are set against them.
Abohar, often called the 'California of Punjab', is a citrus hub whose kinnow sells across North India and abroad. A shop that sells it by the dozen and by the box can keep each as its own item.