Light off? Here’s how the counter keeps going.

The problem isn’t the dark

A food business has cooked through dumsor before and will again. The gas still burns and the charcoal still glows. What suffers is everything around the food: the phone dies, the Wi-Fi goes, MoMo gets slow, the notebook can’t be read, and the change runs out because everybody is paying cash. By the end of the night the takings are a guess.

So plan for the counter, not just the kitchen.

Before the light goes

• Charge everything in the afternoon. The phone or tablet you sell on, a power bank, and a rechargeable lamp for the counter. A full power bank is worth more than any feature.
• Keep a bigger float. When MoMo is slow, people pay cash, and they pay with big notes. Have the change ready before the evening, not after the third customer.
• Know when it’s coming. When a load-shedding timetable is published for your area, plan the prep and the evening around it.
• Light the counter, not just the kitchen. People need to see the change they’re given. So do you.

When it goes

• Keep selling on the phone. A till that saves sales on the phone itself doesn’t care whether the router is on. Tabworthy writes every sale on the phone first and sends it on when there’s a signal, so the evening’s records are safe either way. Selling offline explains what works and what doesn’t.
• Cash first if the network goes. MoMo usually still works in the dark because the mobile network has its own power, but when it’s slow, don’t hold the queue for it. Take cash, or let them send to your number and check it when things calm down.
• One person on the money. In the dark, with a crowd, it’s easy for two people to take the same payment, or for nobody to take it. Decide who holds the drawer.
• Close tabs early. A table that’s been ordering all evening should settle before the lamp’s battery goes, not after.

The fridge and the stock

• Keep it shut. Every opening costs cold. Take out what you’ll need for the next hour at once.
• Move what spoils first. Meat and fish to the coldest spot; drinks can go warm and still sell.
• Write off what spoiled. If something goes off, write it down as spoiled. On Pro, stock takes write-offs, so what went into the bin isn’t mistaken for what walked out of the door.

After the light comes back

• Count the drawer the same night. Dumsor nights are when drawers come up short, not because anybody stole, but because change was given in the dark. Count while it’s fresh. Counting the drawer has a sheet.
• Check the MoMo. On your own phone, check what actually arrived. Payments that “went through” in a crowd are the ones worth checking.
• Fill in the gaps. If anything was written on paper while the phone was dead, put it into your record tonight, not next week.

If you’re still on paper

A notebook works in the dark if you can read it. Keep a pen and the page by the lamp, and write every sale, even the small ones. The daily sales record has a sheet that keeps cash and MoMo apart, which matters most on the nights they get mixed up.