Billing for your fruit and vegetable shop in West Bengal
The morning rate, the weight and the udhaar, all on one bill on your phone.
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Tools for a counter of lau, patal and begun
Bills on your phone
A list that follows the customer's words: half a kilo of kochu, 250 grams of kumro and six lemons, made into one bill and sent to her phone.
Low stock warnings
The lau and the patal that will be gone by ten in the morning, shown on the phone while the wholesale market is still open.
Daily reports
The kilos of lau, patal and begun sold each day, kept so the weeks of the Pujo month can be read again the next year.
Why a Bengal vegetable shop sells different rates before and after the first bargain
A bazaar that opens in the dark
The bazaar starts before sunrise. The load comes in from the wholesale market, the lau, patal, begun and kochu are sorted into baskets, oranges and water caltrops go on plates beside them, and the rate board is written in a hurry. The first housewives come early and bargain hard, and by eight the rates have moved once. The first customers got one rate and the later ones another, and nothing says which was which.
Potato and onion carry the whole day's takings
Potato goes into nearly every Bengali pot, and onion into the rest, so when their rate moves the day's takings move with them. You sell by the kilo, but the customer wants half a kilo of one thing, a quarter of another, and a bunch of coriander thrown in. The coriander and the green chillies given free are on no bill and in no count, and at night the baskets do not match the money.
Sunday and the Pujo weeks, when the baskets are empty by noon
Sunday is the big bazaar day, and the weeks around Pujo are bigger, with guests in the house and a full spread on every table. By noon the baskets are bare, and you cannot tell whether you ordered too little or priced too low. The hotel and the hostel mess that take on slate and pay at the month's end add their own pages to a notebook that is already fat.
From the Sunday queue to the sack of potatoes at night
Bills that keep pace with the Sunday queue
Weigh, say the amount, and make the bill on the phone while the next customer is already pointing at the brinjals. The customer gets it on WhatsApp, and you do not stop to write a slip. A queue that used to be eight deep at the scale moves because the paper work no longer happens at the scale.
Fresh potato and cold-store potato, two rates on one counter
Much of the potato on a Bengal counter has spent months in a cold store, and the new crop comes in at a different rate. Make them two items, each with its own rate and its own kilos. A customer who asks for the new potato gets that line on her bill, and a lot of cold-store potato can be run down to nothing before you order the next.
The Sunday customer who holds only a large note
On Sunday half the queue pays with a big note for a small bag, and you spend the morning counting change out of the cash box. Show the QR code at the scale, and let the payment come to your phone by UPI. The cash box keeps its change for the customers who really need it, and the queue moves.
Where the Bengal vegetable shop's goods grow
Vegetables come from the farms of many districts. These are a few that a Bengal shop owner hears about.
- Purba Medinipur is mainly farming land growing paddy, potato, vegetables and betelvine; produce is marketed mainly in local markets and nearby Kolkata.
- Dhaniakhali block in Hooghly is world famous for its handloom sarees, grows paddy and potato, and has a large number of potato cold storages.
- North 24 Parganas has an industrial, urban zone in Bidhannagar and Barrackpore, a riverine belt in south Basirhat, and cultivable plains around Bongaon.
- Rice is the main crop in Purba Barddhaman, which the district calls the only West Bengal district strong in both industry and agriculture.
Questions a West Bengal vegetable shop asks
At night the potato and onion count agrees with the money, but the coriander I give free never does. Can I show it?
Add a line for the free handful beside the kilo of potato, at a rate of nothing. The stock goes down by it, and at night the kilos that differ from the money are named in a line of their own.
At eight the rate of potato moved once, and the first customers had already paid the earlier price. What do I tell the next one who asks why?
Bills made before eight carry the earlier rate and bills after it carry the new one. The first customers have their own bills on their phones, so you point to the two bills and the question is closed.
A housewife haggles for the patal at six and pays only when we agree. Should the bill wait?
Yes. Make it after you agree, and put the agreed rate on the line. The figure on her phone is then the figure you both said, and you show the QR code only then.
Guests fill the house in the Pujo weeks. Can I see whether lau, patal and begun move more than on other Sundays?
Yes. Open the Sundays of the Pujo weeks and the other Sundays and read the kilos of lau, patal and begun on each. The three vegetables show how much the guests add to the house's cooking.
Singur, the state's own vegetable buyers and the Pujo-time price fall
The state's Sufal Bangla began on 29 September 2014 with 14 mobile-van outlets selling potato and onion; farmers around Singur in Hooghly now supply fresh vegetables at the Singur Krishak Bazaar.
In October 2024, around Durga Puja, officials said vegetable prices fell 15-20 per cent, mainly onions, tomatoes and green chillies, and cold stores held 1.9 million tonnes of potatoes.