#16| Krishna — Kirana Chronicles
by Dharmesh Ba, Akshay Joshi & Apoorva Shetty
Short story
55-year-old Krishna is the manager at a well-known Darshini restaurant in Bengaluru. Krishna came to Bengaluru more than 15 years ago after his business back home suffered losses. Krishna now looks after the daily functioning of the restaurant he works at.
Darshini restaurant: The city of Bengaluru is well known for its local self-service eateries that serve breakfast, lunch and dinner; commonly referred to as 'Darshini'.
Business
More than a decade ago, Krishna owned an alcohol retail business in the coastal town of Karnataka — Udupi. A regulatory bill which was passed by the Government of Karnataka affected the business at his store. He then moved to Bengaluru and joined the restaurant to work as a cashier. He worked as the cashier for more than a decade until an unexpected passing away of the manager got him promoted from cashier to the manager of the restaurant.
The restaurant which is situated around many office complexes is a 25-year-old partnership between 5 people who live in and around Bengaluru. The restaurant is open from 7 in the morning to 9 in the night. It serves south Indian and Chinese food to around 70–80 customers who visit on a daily basis. Krishna manages the functioning of the restaurant and only seeks advice from the partners when financial or other decision making is involved. He wakes up around 5:30 am to receive and cross the materials required for the restaurant.
“I wake up at 5:30 and sleep at 10:30. All the kitchen stuff comes in the morning. So I have to prepare and keep things ready.”
In the many years of working at the restaurant, Krishna has seen a shift in the eating habits of the people. People who would earlier order south Indian meals for lunch now order noodles with Gobi Manchurian.
“There is one restaurant close by no. When it came, our business went down but then it picked up again. And then if juice shops and all increase, then ours goes down too. There is competition.”
“Back then when customers came, they would make a bill around 500–600 rupees. But today, the bill hardly comes up to even 200 rupees. Now everyone eats within a limit. I’ve seen it long back. There’s a big difference between that generation and this generation. We did not have Chinese food back then, we do now. Now they eat a lot of Chinese. The people who used to eat South Indian eat Chinese now. Give gobi, give fried rice. They eat only that.”
With an increase in the number of restaurants around, the number of customers at the shop sees a constant fluctuation. When asked about measures taken to get more customers to the restaurant, Krishna mentions that no matter how much money is put into improving the business, it will still function the way it is right now.
“You cannot generate more money through this kind of restaurant. Only minimum business is possible. The business does not go beyond that. See we estimate the number of people who will come, so we prepare that much, that’s it. If we expect more customers and make more food then everything will be leftover. It will have to be thrown away.”
According to Krishna, the biggest challenge he has come across in his decade along service at the restaurant was and continues to be the acquiring and retention of labour. Labour is the most important aspect for scaling the restaurant, making online delivery available or for any other improvements to be made.
I’m working here for time pass. Not to improve or anything. If it is not our own business, we can’t do anything about it. I don’t want this business, neither do my children. Because this is problematic. There is never enough labour, whatever money comes in is not enough. I will make some money and go back in a year or two.
Once in a month, Krishna gets on the overnight bus to his hometown to visit his wife and kids. In his words — “The buses from Yeshwanthpur; they keep yelling Udupi Udupi Udupi.”
Payments
- Krishna accepts payments through the QR codes of the digital payments app. The payment is received from his personal account on the app. He then withdraws the money from the ATM and uses the cash to make bill or vendor payments.
- Vendors who supply vegetables, milk and the weekly water suppliers are paid in cash.
“If the employees salary is more than 10,000 Rupees, I give cheques. But we don’t keep more than 10,000. Because many people come and leave so it gets settled within that. We pay them based on the number of days they have worked.”
Problems faced- We adjust everything with this only. If there is profit it will go to them. Sometimes if they cant pay, they adjust with the previous month.
“I have kept my personal account to accept payments. The company agents said — take this there’s profit in it for you. I don’t know how to use it but I know when money comes into my account.”
Accounts
- Krishna keeps accounts of the daily expenses, monthly bills and employee salaries. The cashier at the counter keeps an account of customer transactions. The amount is tallied every evening before the restaurant closes.
- The restaurant had once adopted a billing system for the transaction. However, every time a new person would be in charge of the cash at the counter, Krishna would have to train them until they learnt to do it themselves. This turned into a burden for Krishna.
- The accountant comes in once a month. The collected bills, receipts, etc. are handed over to him.
“The cashier makes note of the transactions — It is there in the book. It’s written down during billing itself. Money goes for groceries, milk, and other items. Whatever remains, goes into payment.”
The owner’s relative works here, I give him a list of payments that have been made by me. I report to them everyday.
The accountant comes on the 10th of every month. The money which the accountant shows is paid. Now there is no GST, it was there earlier. Now business is less, so it doesn’t come under that.
“We had put one billing system in place, but that was always a trouble. Morning someone comes, evening another person comes, so he won’t know, he ends up doing something else. They would have taught, but see now there is one person, tomorrow another person comes, I have to sit and do it.”
Banking
- Krishna is in charge of handling the financial aspects of the restaurant. The money that goes into his bank account from the apps is withdrawn at the ATM and used for payments. The money is handed over to a relative of one of the partners.
“I withdraw the money that comes in through the app from an ATM. Not every time, only whenever it’s urgently needed. Not for personal use. Whatever I get I give it to the owners relative.”
“The partners don’t need loans. They’ll get everything done quickly. If we say we need tables, they’ll send it tomorrow or send money.”
Vendor management
- A regular vegetable vendor supplies vegetables to the store on a daily basis. The vegetables are supplied in the morning, and money is collected by the vendor at the end of the day.
“Daily Vegetables — I pay them how much they need. Fixed quantities. there is a vegetable seller, he brings it to this area. They are paid in the evening. It is same-day payment. There is no credit system. ”
“Whoever offers lower, we’ll go with it. We have our usual vendor he gets everything. I am aware of the market prices of the items also. Before I used to only go to the market.”
Customer management
- Customers are mainly employees of the nearby offices in the area. Since customers go back home in the evening, the handful of customers who eat at the restaurants in the evenings are mostly people who live in neighbouring areas.
- Krishna mentions that no matter what new strategies are tried out at the restaurant, the same set of customers visit day after day. The customers have adapted to the flavours of the food in the restaurant.
“Around 60 people come in the afternoon, mornings and evenings are empty. The same people keep coming. But customers only come in the afternoon, otherwise its empty.”
“We maintain and try to improve the quality of the food. Even then, the same customers come here every day. Business neither goes up nor down, it’s the same as always.”
“In case we want to do online delivery and on the days we don’t have people to sit at the counter then we have to track the order, we have to do packing also. There won’t be anyone here to do the packing. ”
“The customers have gotten used to the taste of this food. We have understood what they like and they have understood how we make it. Sometimes someone comes saying something smells like its been burnt or something else. nothing else”
Employee management
- The restaurant has 6 full-time employees at the restaurant, excluding a few part-time cleaning staff. Krishna mentions that the employees are mostly migrants who come to Bangalore in search of jobs.
- Krishna and the remaining employees stay in a rented house provided to them by the restaurant owners.
“The employees mostly people from outside. No one is permanent here. They come and go. Some come today and leave tomorrow, others stay for 1–2 months, no one stays permanently. The main problem is labour.”
“Working in a hotel is considered cheap. If you need people for offices, you’ll get many. But for a hotel, you’ll get very few.”
“It is not our problem, see here you get food at lower rates, salary is less here. So when people come to Bangalore for the first time they come and work here for 1–2 months and then join elsewhere. We try giving better salaries, but if we give more than our level it won’t work out. It might be possible for hotels who are at a higher level than us.”
“We’re not able to find the labor to do the work. This has only become too much. For that we won’t get people. Tomorrow iF the cook isnt around, I will only have to go and get things done sometimes.”
Technology
- Krishna uses WhatsApp to keep in touch with the family back home. He often video calls his wife.
- He bought his phone from a phone showroom in Bangalore. When he’s free, he watches movies on YouTube.
“My son ordered two phoones online. None of them worked properly. Then I ended up buying one from here (at store) only. Bought a phone at the showroom with cash.”
Credits:
Interviewed by Akshay Joshi and Dharmesh Ba
Analysed and published for Medium by Apoorva Shetty
About the research:
This documentation is a result of the in-person interview, along with the participants’ consent. The interviews might be conducted in their native languages and translated to English in the best possible way to reach a large audience.
Disclaimer: The identities of people and places in this documentation have been changed to honour the privacy of the participants.
About D91 labs:
This research was executed and documented by D91 labs. D91 labs is an open-source initiative by setu.co to help Bharat build great fintech products. We organise and publish user research, insights, and frameworks for fintech in India. Please follow us on medium for more exciting stories and insights on Bharat.
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