Billing for your toy shop in Jammu and Kashmir
The Eid gift for every child, the carton that came in mixed colours, and the maker you owe.
Tools for a counter of balloons, cricket bats and papier-mâché gifts
Low stock warnings
A warning that the footballs and the small bats are down to a handful, four nights before Eid and not on the last. The father who comes for a ball will find one.
Daily reports
The last night before Eid read beside the first week, ball by ball and bat by bat, so next Eid's order knows which toys to hold back for the final evening.
Online orders
A father working in another city picks gifts for his children from your shop's page, and his family collects them from the counter.
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Why a Kashmir toy shop runs out of the right gift on the last night before Eid and of sledges on the first snow
The last night, when every father wants the same three things
On the night before Eid, fathers come in with a list from home: a ball, a doll, a small cricket bat for the eldest. Everyone wants the same few items at the same hour. By ten the best sellers are gone, and you did not see it happening because the shelf looked full until it did not. The father who finds the shelf bare for the one toy he came for goes to the next shop, and he remembers it at the next Eid.
The first snow, and not enough sledges
Sledges and woollen gloves for children are ordered once a year, in the warm months, when nobody is thinking of snow. When the first heavy fall comes, they are sold out in a day and parents ask again for the rest of the week. You cannot say how many you sold, and you have no way to count how many to order next year.
The local maker who is paid after the toys sell
Wooden toys, painted boxes and small papier-mâché gifts come from makers in the lanes nearby, brought in a bag on one day and paid for after the festival. When Eid is over, some pieces are left unsold and some go back to the maker in a bag, and no one has written down which. A year later you remember neither how many pieces there were nor what you gave him, and he remembers differently.
The lanes where Kashmir shops for children's gifts
A toy shop in Jammu and Kashmir sells to families from the lanes of Srinagar to the villages of the hills, and the crafts below make some of its gifts.
- Lal Chowk is Srinagar's central commercial area for textiles, handicrafts and souvenirs; Polo View Market is known for handicrafts and carpets.
- Srinagar's traditional crafts include Pashmina shawls, hand-knotted carpets, walnut wood carving, papier-mache, sozni embroidery, Kani shawls and copperware.
- Budgam district has 74 government handicraft training centres teaching about 1,840 people a year, and an artisan credit scheme gives loans of Rs 2 lakh.
- Basohli paintings and Basohli pashmina are Kathua district's One District One Product, chosen for popularity and export potential.
From the Eid-eve crush to the sledges that sold out in a day
The father who remembers the empty shelf at the next Eid
A father who went home on Eid eve with no ball for his son remembers the shop that was out of them. Balls and small bats are the lines fathers ask for by the fourth night, so look at those two first, before the other toys. The shop that still has them then is the shop he walks to at the next Eid.
A sledge counted from the first flake
In the first snow week a parent asks at the door whether a sledge is left, with the child already pulling her sleeve. You answer from the phone, honestly, before the child has seen an empty hook, and she knows at once whether to stay or go.
Who the last night of Eid belonged to, the child or the father
After Eid you read the sales of the last night toy by toy. The balls and small bats are what children buy with their own coins, and the dolls are what the fathers choose with a list, so the line that went first tells you who the night belonged to.
Questions Kashmir toy shops ask
Sledges are ordered once a year. Can I note them when they arrive and see what is left in January?
Yes. In January the stock shows how many sledges are left from the one lot, and those are the ones that wait a year for the next first snow.
The lane maker brings a bag of boxes in mixed sets, some of three and some single. How do I count them in?
Keep the set of three as one item and the single box as another, and put in the number of each as the bag is opened. The counts go up by what really came, and the maker's bag is written once.
A father asks what I have for a four-year-old in the first snow. The sledge or the wooden train?
Open the counts. The sledge's count says whether one is left, and so does the wooden train's. Show him the one that is in before you climb to the shelf.
Eid gifts for children in the shops of the Valley
On the eve of Eid-ul-Azha 2024, bakery, poultry, vegetable, garment, toy and firecracker shops were the most sought-after in Srinagar and the Valley, though buying was quieter than usual. In a quieter year the daily report of the festival days shows which gifts still moved, and those are the ones to stock first next time.
One shopper said before Eid-ul-Fitr that Eid is incomplete without gifts for children, and that the biggest rush comes at the last minute. For a toy shop that means the last hours are the ones that matter, and a father who finds the shelf bare then has no second chance.