Billing for your footwear shop in Karnataka
Every size of every pair counted, from the rubber chappal of the rains to the leather one of the festival.
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The workers' feet of Karnataka's districts, from the mill to the field
A footwear shop sells to the feet that walk its district's roads, and the work of the district decides which pair.
- Belagavi has 24 sugar factories and 200 foundries producing over 70,000 tons of automotive and industrial castings, so workers there want footwear that lasts the shift.
- Ballari holds 25% of India's iron ore reserves, JSW's Vijayanagar steel works is at Toranagallu, and 75% of workers depend on farming, so the shop there sells to the mill and to the field.
- Tumakuru district has 9 APMC market yards, at Tumakuru, Tiptur, Gubbi, Sira, Huliyar, Pavagada, Madhugiri, Kunigal and Turuvekere, and the traders on the yard floor spend the day on their feet.
- Dakshina Kannada is famous for red clay roof tiles (Mangalore tiles), cashew nuts and cashew products.
The santhe stall as its own shop, the bundle at its own rate and the repair as a line
Last Thursday's santhe, opened before you load this Thursday's stall
Your stall goes to a different santhe every day, so the day of the week tells you which villages you are selling to. Before you load the van on Thursday, open last Thursday's sales and see which sizes and which kinds went. Load those first, and leave the slow pairs on the shelf at home.
The bundle from the artisan family, noted at its own price when it arrives
Send the order to the family that makes the chappals, and when the bundle comes, note what arrived and the rate you paid. Each lot is on your phone with its date and its rate. A month later you can see what a pair cost you, and set the shelf rate with the cost in front of you.
The cobbler's part of each mended strap, read from the month's bills
The cobbler keeps a part of each repair, a split agreed years ago and said aloud, so on the day it is questioned there is nothing on paper. Put the strap stitch and the sole patch on the bill with the price. The month's repairs add up, the cobbler's part is worked out from them, and you read it out to him from the same sum.
Why a Karnataka footwear seller carries a stall to a different santhe each day
A stall that goes to a different weekly santhe every day
A footwear seller in a Karnataka town may keep his shop on the main road and also carry a stall to the weekly santhe of the villages around, a different one each day. The stock goes out in the morning and some of it comes back at night. Nobody can say which santhe sold the most, which pairs went where, or whether the pairs that came back are the same as those that left.
Handmade pairs bought from a family at a price set pair by pair
The chappals made by artisan families do not come with a printed price. A pair is priced on the day by the size, the leather and the haggling. The shop buys a bundle at one rate and a second bundle at another, and a month later the owner cannot say what a particular pair cost him. His profit is a feeling, not a figure.
The cobbler's share, remembered two ways
The cobbler who sits near the door is not on the shop's pay. He keeps part of each repair and the shop keeps the rest, by a split agreed years ago and said aloud. A strap stitched on a Monday and a sole patched on a Thursday are remembered differently by the two of you at the month's end, and the repaired pair went home without a bill to settle it.
Questions Karnataka footwear shop owners ask
A buyer at one santhe asks for a size left on another stall. Can I tell him?
Yes. Open the account and read each stall's count and the shop's. If the size is elsewhere, tell him you will have it at the next santhe where he finds you.
A customer brings a pair bought elsewhere only to be repaired. Can the bill hold just the repair?
Yes. Make the bill with the customer's name and only the repair line on it. The repair is counted with the others at the month's end, so the cobbler's share includes it, though no pair of yours was sold.
Some pairs come back from the santhe unsold in the evening. Which day's santhe sends home the most?
Read each day's stall on its own. The kinds of pairs that come home from the same day's santhe week after week do not sell there, so on that day you leave them in the shop and carry the kinds that go.
Kolhapuri chappals made in Karnataka's own towns
Karnataka's rural development minister said many Kolhapuri chappal artisans live in Athani, Nippani, Chikkodi, Raibag and other parts of Belagavi, Bagalkot and Dharwad. A shop in these districts is often a short ride from the family that made the pair on its shelf.
Karnataka's Kolhapuri chappal artisans have made them for generations and sold in nearby towns, especially Kolhapur, which became the default market and, over time, the brand. A shop that buys directly from such a family keeps a chain of trade shorter than most.