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Food & spices · 11 entries

A rate that was only true this morning

In this trade a price is a perishable fact. Yesterday's rate is not a stale number, it is a wrong one, and a quantity written as “do bora” means nothing until somebody knows what a bora holds in your goods. These are the eight patterns where getting it approximately right is the same as getting it wrong.

Can it quote today's rate when the rate changes every day?

It quotes from your rate as it stands right now, and where today's rate has not been set it says so instead of repeating yesterday's. Trade units — bora, quintal, katta, peti — are read against what your catalog actually sells in rather than converted on an assumption.

A stale rate is not an old answer. It is a wrong one.

Today's rate, and only today's4

Where a number carried over from yesterday is a wrong number, not an old one

uc-076

Poultry, fish and meat at this morning's rate

— nothing carries over from yesterday, including the price

Aaj ka rate kya hai? 20 kg chahiye

“What's today's rate? I need 20 kg.”

UC-076HINGLISHPATNAPALANQUIN

What you'll observe

Answered from today's rate where you have set one, and told plainly that it is not set yet where you have not. It does not quote yesterday's number to avoid an awkward reply.

This is the sharpest case for refusing to guess: the buyer will hold you to a quoted rate, and a rate the agent invented is a loss you did not agree to.

uc-088

Scrap bought by weight, at today's rate

— the price moves with the metal market, not with your calendar

What you'll observe

Weight times the current rate, and the rate named rather than folded silently into a total. A seller who cannot see the rate cannot check the arithmetic.

uc-073

An order in bora, quintal and katta

— mandi units, which mean different weights in different goods

Do bora haldi aur ek quintal mirch bhejo

“Send two sacks of turmeric and one quintal of chilli.”

UC-073HINDIINDOREPALANQUIN

What you'll observe

Read against what your catalog sells in. Where a bora is ambiguous for that item it is confirmed before it becomes a quantity, because the difference between guesses is a truckload.

uc-070

A gold rate that moves twice a day

— folded in from jewellery, because it is the same problem in a different trade

What you'll observe

Quoted from the rate as it stands at that moment, with the time it was set. Nothing is quoted stale, and where the morning rate has been superseded the buyer is told which one they are being given.

A jeweller and a fish counter have almost nothing in common except this, and it is the thing that breaks general-purpose software in both.

When the order is really a date4

Four cases where availability is not a stock number — it is a calendar

uc-074

Forty kilos across six varieties, for a wedding

— one message carrying a split, a date and a total

Shaadi ke liye 40 kg mithai chahiye, 6 variety, 14 tareekh ko

“I need 40 kg of sweets for a wedding, six varieties, on the 14th.”

UC-074HINDIJAIPURPALANQUIN

What you'll observe

The six varieties become six lines that add to forty, and the date becomes the date it is needed rather than the date it was asked. What the split should be, when the buyer has not said, is a question back — not a division by six.

uc-077

A decorator's standing order at the flower mandi

— repeating, seasonal, and priced on the morning it ships

What you'll observe

The standing order is recognised as standing, so the conversation is about this week's change rather than re-placing the whole thing. The rate is the rate on the day it goes out.

uc-089

A tent house asked for a date, not a quantity

— the question is whether the 14th is free, not whether stock exists

What you'll observe

Answered against what is already committed on that date. Rental stock that is sitting in a warehouse is not available if it is promised to somebody else that weekend.

uc-071

A banquet buyer ordering crockery by the head count

— they know how many guests, not how many plates

What you'll observe

The head count is taken as the head count and the quantities follow from what you actually supply per cover. Where your rule for that is not set, it asks rather than inventing a ratio.

The order that is mostly last week's order3

Three buyers who are not placing an order so much as adjusting the previous one

uc-075

Thirty neighbourhood bakeries, ordering weekly

— the same buyers, the same items, at a rate that still moves

What you'll observe

Their usual order comes back as a draft to adjust rather than a form to fill again, priced at what it costs this week rather than what it cost when the habit started.

uc-004

“Same as last time, minus the paneer”

— a restaurant supplier's most common message, and it is a diff

Pichli baar wala hi bhej do, paneer nahi chahiye

“Send the same as last time — no paneer.”

UC-004HINGLISHPUNEPALANQUIN

What you'll observe

Last week's order is retrieved and the one subtraction applied, then read back before anything is confirmed. A repeat order applied without a readback is where a dropped line goes unnoticed for a week.

uc-078

A nursery selling by size and season

— the same plant is a different product in March and in September

What you'll observe

Size and season read as part of what is being ordered rather than as description. What is not in season is said to be out of season, which is a different answer from out of stock.

Part of

Questions people ask before they try it

Our rates change daily. Does someone have to update the agent every morning?

It reads whatever your rate list holds at the moment of the question, so updating your own rates is the only step. Where today's rate is genuinely not in yet, the honest answer is that it is not in yet — which is a better reply than a confident wrong number a buyer will hold you to.

Will it convert bora or katta into kilos on its own?

Only where your catalog defines what that unit means for that item. Trade units are not universal — a bora of turmeric and a bora of chilli are not the same weight — so an unconfirmed conversion becomes a wrong quantity on a truck rather than a wrong word in a message.

Can it take a wedding or event order without a person involved?

It drafts one, and anything it is unsure about goes to your team with the original message attached. Event orders are the ones where a small misreading is most expensive, because nobody discovers it until the day.

Test it, don't take it from us

Ask it: “Aaj ka rate kya hai?”

You're talking to the product. Nothing you send is added to any business's catalog.