Billing for your saree and garment shop in Karnataka
A silk saree, its fall and pico and the blouse stitching, on one bill that you can read back next season.
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What a Karnataka cloth shop weighs before the buying trip, at the saree counter and at the tailor's table
The wholesale trip before the festival, planned from memory
Chickpet's wholesale cloth merchants' association president said about 3,500 cloth shops there do wholesale business with other states and with Karnataka towns like Davangere, with a rush before Varamahalakshmi. A shop in a town like that goes to buy in the same rush. The owner stands in a crowded lane with money in his pocket and a list in his head of what sold last year, and the list is always a little wrong.
"Is this real silk?" is the first question at the saree counter
A customer who is spending a good sum on a silk saree wants to be sure of what she is buying. She turns it over, looks at the border and asks the owner to say it plainly. The honest shop has real silk and cheaper blends on the same shelves, and the helper who is new cannot always say which is which. A saree that is sold under the wrong name comes back, and so does the customer's trust.
The fall, the pico and the blouse are sold with the saree and never written down
A saree shop in Karnataka does more than sell the saree. The fall is stitched on, the pico is done on the edge, and the blouse is sent to the tailor. Each of these is a small charge, and on a busy evening they are said aloud and not written. The customer collects her saree on Thursday and remembers a different amount from the one the helper remembers.
The wholesale list, the saree with its fall and the design found by its name
Walking the Chickpet lane knowing your own gaps
Chickpet has about 3,500 cloth shops selling wholesale to other states and to towns like Davangere, and all of them are buying before Varamahalakshmi. In that crowd the lane is loud and the best lots go to whoever is quick. A shop that has to stop and think about what it needs loses the lot to the next buyer.
The fall, the pico and the stitching, charged as said
The fall, the pico and the blouse stitching are small charges that are easy to forget at the counter. Put each in as an item with its own rate on the saree's bill, so on Thursday, when she comes for the stitched saree, the charge she hears is the charge on the bill.
The saree she asked for by name becomes the next order
When a customer asks for a saree you do not have, write her words as the name of the next order, Mysore silk or Ilkal as she said it. The one you do not have is the one you order, and the supplier is asked for it by her name for it, not yours.
Where the cloth of Karnataka is bought, worn and sold
Cloth is bought by the families of every district, and each district's work decides when they come.
- Belagavi has 24 sugar factories and 200 foundries producing over 70,000 tons of automotive and industrial castings, and the families of the people who work in them buy new cloth at the festivals.
- Dakshina Kannada is famous for red clay roof tiles (Mangalore tiles), cashew nuts and cashew products.
- Tumakuru district has 9 APMC market yards, at Tumakuru, Tiptur, Gubbi, Sira, Huliyar, Pavagada, Madhugiri, Kunigal and Turuvekere, and the traders and farm families who come there shop for cloth too.
- Ballari holds 25% of India's iron ore reserves, JSW's Vijayanagar steel works is at Toranagallu, and 75% of workers depend on farming.
Questions Karnataka saree and garment shop owners ask
A new helper cannot tell silk from a blend. How do I stop a saree being sold under the wrong name?
Put the answer in the item's name when you add the saree, so the helper reads silk or blend from the screen and does not judge by touch. The bill carries the same name, and the report shows how many of each were sold.
The Chickpet carton comes with a bill that only gives a carton number. How do I note what was inside?
Write the carton number from the wholesaler's paper on the order, and when the carton is opened note each saree by name and count against it. The stock of each design then starts from what was in the carton, and the carton number leads you back to the bill.
A trader from Davanagere takes a dozen sarees in one go. Can I bill them as one lot?
Yes. Put each saree on the bill as its own line with its name and its rate, and write the trader's name on the bill. The dozen leaves the stock saree by saree, so the lot is a bill and not a guess, and the trader reads the same list you do.
A customer asks for an Ilkal saree in maroon. Can I check without opening the shelves?
Yes, if you named the items with the design and the colour. Search the phone, and the count of each is there.
GI-tagged Mysore silk and the red pallu of Ilkal
Mysore Silk sarees are GI-tagged, made at the Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation factory in Mysuru, and sold there and at Cauvery Emporiums across the state. A shop that sells silk sarees beside them is asked every day how its own pieces compare.
Ilkal sarees from Bagalkot district use cotton or silk blends, with a red or maroon tope teni pallu, and suit everyday wear, festivals and rituals. A shop that stocks them sells to the woman who wears one on an ordinary day and to the family that buys one for a function.