Four

Your shop already knows things you do not

You pull the shutter down. There are four thousand rupees in the drawer. Was that a good day? Most shopkeepers cannot say.

You know what came in. You do not know what a normal Thursday looks like. So a slow day and a busy day feel the same. You only find out at the end of the month, when it is too late to do anything.

BillMadi says it out loud now. Open My Shop in the afternoon and you may read this: a usual Thursday has Rs 425 by now. You are at Rs 230.

That is not a scolding. It is a warning with two hours still on it. The evening rush has not come yet. You can call the regulars. You can move the fast sellers to the front.

It puts Thursday next to Thursday, not next to yesterday. A Tuesday is not a Saturday. It also waits until it has seen three Thursdays. Until then it says nothing, because a guess is worse than silence.

The second thing is about your shelf. Six packets left. Is six a lot?

It depends on the packet. You sell four Parle-G a day. Six will be gone by Friday. You sell one hair oil in ten days. Six is two months of stock.

The screen used to call both of them low. Now your shop knows the difference. The Parle-G says out by Friday. The hair oil says nothing at all, because nothing is wrong with it.

You order on a day of the week, not in a number of days. So it gives you the day.

None of this asks you for anything new. No forms to fill. No cost prices to enter. Your own bills already hold all of it. And none of it leaves your phone.