Deepak's Pickup Counter

Customers get a number for pickup and check their place in the queue even when the WiFi at the nursery is down.

Who this is for

Deepak Rao runs a plant nursery on the Kadiyam road outside Rajahmundry: two acres of shade-net, and two helpers, Suresh and Ravi, who carry the pots out. On Sunday mornings twenty or thirty people come to collect orders they placed on WhatsApp during the week. Most are regulars Deepak knows by name. The router sits in the office shed and barely reaches the gate, and the mobile signal drops behind the shade houses. The moment is nine on a Sunday, with a line at the gate and the WiFi light blinking red.

How the job is done today

Deepak keeps a ruled notebook at the gate with the week's orders. When someone arrives, their name gets a tick and they are told to wait. Nobody writes down who came first, so whoever is loudest usually gets served next. Suresh walks the rows calling out names. Customers wander into the shade houses looking for their own crotons. Meanwhile Deepak's phone buzzes with WhatsApp messages from people parked outside asking if it is their turn. When the signal drops, those messages arrive twenty minutes late, all at once.

The screens, in order

1. Give a number — Lets Deepak hand the next number to whoever has just walked up, with their name and a few words about what they are collecting.
2. Your place — Shows a customer who scanned the board at the gate how many people are ahead of them, and when that was last known.
3. The line — Tells Suresh and Ravi who is next, so they fetch the right pots and mark each person as called or collected.
4. End of the morning — Shows Deepak who came, who collected, and who took a number and left, before the line starts again from one.

What it keeps track of

• Turn — the number, the person's name, what they are collecting, what time they got the number, whether they have been called, whether they have collected
• Morning — which day, the last number handed out, whether the line is open or closed
• Changes waiting to go out — which number, what happened to it, at what time, whether the other phones have heard about it yet

The one decision that matters

Who hands out the numbers. One option is to let each customer take a number from their own phone by scanning a board at the gate. That is tidy when there is signal. With none, two phones can both decide they are number 14, and nobody finds out until someone is annoyed. The other option is that only Deepak's phone at the gate gives out numbers, and customers scan the board only to watch their place. Go with Deepak's phone. It needs no signal to give a number because it never has to ask anyone, so numbers can never clash, and Deepak already stands at the gate anyway. Customer pages should show the last place they know and the time they last heard, so 'you were 4th at 9:12' is honest rather than quietly wrong.

What to leave out of the first version

No WhatsApp or SMS alert when a turn comes up. Those need signal at exactly the moment there is none, and each message costs money. No payments, because people already paid on UPI when they ordered, and the gate should not become a till. No full order list beyond a line of plain text. Deepak's notebook already handles orders well enough. The broken part is the line, so fix that first.

How you would know it worked

On a Sunday morning when the WiFi is down, nobody asks Deepak how much longer, no number is given out twice, and when the signal comes back every customer's page catches up without anyone touching it.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a plant nursery near Rajahmundry, and on Sunday mornings twenty or thirty people come to collect orders. I want a simple website for a pickup line. At the gate, I use my phone to give each person the next number and type their name and a few words about what they are collecting. Customers scan a board at the gate, type in their number, and see how many people are ahead of them. My two helpers open the same site on their phones to see who is next, and mark each person as called or collected. The WiFi at the nursery goes down often, so my phone must keep giving out numbers and marking people done with no signal at all, then bring everyone up to date when the signal returns. Customer pages should say when they last got news. Numbers start from one each morning. No payments or messages needed.