Billing for your toy shop in Andhra Pradesh
A doll for the Bommala Koluvu steps, a kite for Sankranti, and the udhaar until the festival money comes.
Where the toy money comes from in Andhra Pradesh
A toy shop sells to the children but is paid by their parents, and what the parents earn depends on the district they live in.
- Nunna Mango Market, on the edge of Vijayawada, gets its mangoes from farmers of NTR, Eluru and Krishna districts. When the mango money has been paid, the shops around those farms see the families come in.
- Kakinada port leads in exporting rice to nearly 25 African countries, and also sends it to China and Vietnam. The families of that coast live by the export of grain, and the toys they buy follow the season.
- Venkatagiri sarees, woven on pit looms, are Tirupati district's One District One Product, and about 3,064 households make them. A craft house knows the worth of hand-made things, and a Kondapalli doll is one of them.
Why the Bommala Koluvu customer is so hard to remember
The same family comes back for the next doll
A family that sets up Bommala Koluvu does not buy all its dolls at once. It adds a doll or two every season and wants the new one to match the old. She asks whether you still have the pair she saw last month, or what the set cost her last time. You were busy then, the notebook has a line with no name, and she leaves to look at the next shop.
The painted tops run out first, and nobody sees it happen
The days before Sankranti bring the painted tops, bought by children with a few coins and by fathers with a list. The tops are cheap, they run out first, and nobody sees it happen. By the time you notice the empty hook, the supplier's next lorry is days away and the festival is over.
A corner of toys beside the biscuits and soap
In many a village counter the toys are only a corner of the shop: a few balls, some marbles, a rack of masks. Between a customer asking for rice and another for oil, a child points at a ball and goes. The sale is small, the stock is not written anywhere, and at the end of the month you cannot say if the corner has paid for its space.
Before Navaratri, in the kite fortnight, and when the small dolls for the top steps run out
Count the dolls a month before Navaratri
Toys made by hand do not reach your shop in a day. Open the stock a month before the festival and see how many Kondapalli pairs, how many dolls for the middle steps and how many small ones are left, then ask the supplier while there is still time to reach you. You stop apologising at the counter for dolls you had in June and not in October.
The small dolls for the top steps are counted apart from the big pair
A Bommala Koluvu has big dolls for the lower steps and small ones for the top. Keep the big pair, the middle dolls and the small ones as separate items. A family that asks for the small dolls is told at once if they are gone, and you see which size the steps are really being filled with.
A Kondapalli pair ordered from the maker, with the family's name on the order
A family wants a Kondapalli pair that is not on the shelf. You send the order to the maker and write the family's name against it. When the pair comes in, you note it against the same order, so you know at once whose pair it is.
Tools for a counter of dolls, kites and spinning tops
Low stock warnings
A warning when the Kondapalli pairs or the reels of thread fall low, so the order goes to the supplier before the empty hook.
Credit book (khata)
One page for a family that adds a Bommala Koluvu doll every season, so this year's pair is billed beside the pairs of the years before.
Bills on your phone
A bill that names each doll of a set, so the family can see which steps it has already filled and which are still bare.
Your own online shop
A page of the Kondapalli pairs and the small dolls for the steps, each with its rate, to share with a family planning its display.
Questions from Andhra Pradesh toy shops
A family bought one doll of a pair last year and wants the second to match it. What do I do if the second is not on the shelf?
Send the maker an order for the second doll with the family's name on it. Note the doll against that order when it arrives, so the second doll is known as theirs and goes to no other buyer.
I keep a few toys on a shelf in my village kirana. Do they need a separate shop?
No. A ball is an item in your stock like a bar of soap. One bill can hold both, and the report shows what the toy shelf sold.
A school wants prizes for sports day and will pay after the term. Can I give it credit?
Yes. The school applies to buy on credit through selling to other businesses, and you see what it owes in a place of its own, apart from the parents on your udhaar pages.
Kondapalli dolls and the steps of Bommala Koluvu
Kondapalli toys are made of Tella Poniki wood and were given a GI tag in 2007. They are central to the Bommala Koluvu doll displays held at Sankranti and Navaratri. A toy shop that stocks them sells to a display the family sets up again every year, so the customer who bought a pair last season is the one who comes back for the next.
In October 2024 Bommala Koluvu, a Navaratri display of dolls set on steps from 1 to 15 or more, was drawing renewed interest in Visakhapatnam. More steps mean more dolls to fill them, and a shop that remembers which dolls it sold the year before can offer the ones that are still missing from the steps.