Billing for your footwear shop in Jammu and Kashmir
The stall owner who takes twenty winter pairs on credit, and the Eid shoe that comes back in a new size.
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From the stall owner's winter lot to the pair exchanged after Eid
Three stalls take the same winter shoe on one day, and each lot sits on its own stall's page
In the snow week three stalls take the same winter shoe on the same day. Each lot is under the stall that took it, so when one stall asks for more you know what it already holds and what the other two hold, and you give the next lot to the stall that is nearly out, and the others wait.
The first snow comes in a day, and a size left out is left out for the season
The first snow comes in a night, and by morning the street wants boots. Rubber boots and plastic winter shoes go in the first hours, and the dealer's next lot is a season away. The week before the snow, rank the sizes by how fast they are running down and write the top of the list to the dealer first.
The last night before Eid, read the morning after
On the eve of Eid the crowd comes at the last minute and the shop sells until late. The morning after, open that one day in the daily report: which sizes of the children's shoes went in the last hours, and which stood. That one day is the picture of the whole Eid, and what you order next comes from it.
Tools for a shop that sells shoes at the counter and by the dozen to the roadside
Sell to other businesses
Roadside stall owners apply to buy winter shoes from you on credit, and you decide which of them gets it.
Low stock warnings
The rubber-boot sizes that an orchard foreman asks for, flagged low before the picking weeks begin.
Bills on your phone
The first bill cancelled and a new one made when a pair is exchanged after Eid, so the cancelled sale stays on record.
Why a Kashmir shoe shop is out of the right size on the first snow, the last night before Eid and the picking week
The stall owner who takes twenty pairs on a promise
When the first snow comes, the roadside stalls want winter shoes in a hurry and come to you, the shop with the stock. A stall owner takes twenty pairs on a promise to pay when his stall sells them. You write his name on a bit of paper, and a month later you cannot say how many pairs he has paid for.
The Eid shoe in a size that does not fit
On the last night before Eid, a father takes a pair for his boy by guessing the size. After Eid he is back, because the shoe does not fit, and you must put a different size in his hand and settle the difference. In the rush of the night before nobody noted the pair, and the exchange is a talk, not a record.
The orchard foreman who sends a list of sizes for his pickers
In the picking weeks an orchard owner sends his foreman with a paper of sizes for the men who pick the fruit, and wants rubber boots for all of them. The list has twenty sizes and the shop has some of them. He takes what you have, promises the rest, and says the owner will pay once the crop is sold.
The towns and orchards whose people walk through a Kashmir shoe shop
A footwear shop in Jammu and Kashmir sells to families who live and work in places like these.
- Jammu city's Narwal fruit and vegetable mandi was upgraded between 2021 and 2023 with improved sheds, a Mandi Plaza building and a 100-tonne weighbridge.
- Agriculture is central to Anantnag district's economy: in 2019-20, 64.56% of the reporting area was under agriculture.
- In Kalakote tehsil of Rajouri district, the main livelihood is agriculture and allied work, and coal is the main resource, exported outside.
- Baramulla is the largest producer of horticulture products in J&K, with vast apple orchards.
Questions Kashmir shoe shops ask
A stall owner takes pairs on a promise and says he will pay when his stall sells. How do I write that?
His page holds the pairs given with the day and the promise he made. In snow week every stall wants pairs at once, so the stall with nothing owed is served first and the stall that still owes waits for its turn at the counter.
A pair bought on the eve of Eid does not fit. How do I show the exchange?
The crowd on the eve is thick and the sizes are going, so look at the count of his size before you promise it. Then make a second bill under the same name for the new pair, and leave the first as it is.
On the first snow day three stall owners want the same size and I have only some. Who gets the pairs?
The count tells you how many are left before you promise anyone. Bill each stall on its own page in the order they came. The last stall is told at the counter that none are left.
The snow of November 2019 and the winter shoe stalls of Srinagar
Untimely snowfall in November 2019 triggered a massive rush for winter plastic shoes in Srinagar, with shops at Batamaloo and roadside stalls busy; dealers said the shoes sell in winter months. The first snow of a year does not wait for the stock to be ready. A winter plastic shoe is a plain, hard-wearing pair that comes in a run of sizes, and a shop that had its sizes counted could answer the stalls on the same day. One that did not lost the sale, because the stall owner, who buys a lot and sells it on in the lane, simply went to the next dealer. The shops that kept their count were the ones he remembered when the next fall came.
Shoes, clothing and sweets are bought in Srinagar's markets before Eid-ul-Fitr, with the biggest rush at the last minute. Snow and Eid are the two seasons that make a Valley shoe shop's year, and the second one is only a few hours long.