Billing and udhaar for every kind of shop in Kerala
Bakery, cloth, medicines or a banana stall: the day's bills and the weekend udhaar stay on your phone.
A family counter, Onam week and two trades in one notebook: where a Kerala shop loses count
Three hands write in the one notebook
In a family shop the father opens in the morning, the son takes the counter after lunch and the mother minds it in the evening, and all three write in the same notebook. Each has his own way of writing a name and a figure. When a customer asks what she owes, the answer depends on whose line you find first.
One counter, two trades, one notebook
A Kerala town lane has a bakery, a cloth shop, a medical store and a hardware shop within a few doors, and many owners sell two things at one counter: sweets with snacks, or stationery with toys. Goods that go by the kilo sit in the same notebook as goods that go by the piece, and at night you cannot tell which line earned the money.
Onam, Vishu, Eid and Christmas fall on the same counter
Each festival brings a different crowd to the same shop. In Onam week families buy for the sadya and for new clothes. Before Eid and Christmas another set of customers comes, and some of them take goods on a promise to pay after the festival. Four rushes a year, each with its own credit, and the notebook cannot say which rush a debt belongs to.
Thrissur gold, Kozhikode halwa, Kannur looms: Kerala shops by district
Every district in Kerala trades in its own way. Here are five, and what they are known for.
- Thrissur is counted the hub of the jewellery and textile business in South India, and it makes 70 percent of Kerala's plain gold jewellery.
- S.M. Street, also called Mittayitheruvu, is one of the busiest streets in Kozhikode for sweets, textiles, electronics and spices, and the place for Kozhikode halwa.
- Paddy in Palakkad is concentrated in the Chittur, Alathur, Kuzhalmannam, Kollengode, Nenmara and Palakkad blocks, where 3,000 kg a hectare is common.
- Cashew processing and coir are major trades in Kollam. The Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation runs 34 factories there and employs over 26,000 workers.
- Kerala depends mainly on Kannur for handloom exports. The district has 73 weaver societies and 13,667 weavers.
A wet Tuesday, a festival week and a second shelf, all on one phone
The wet weeks a Kerala lane loses across the monsoon
After a few monsoons your own record tells you how many wet weeks your lane loses across the season and how thin each one was. You stop ordering for crowds that will not come, and the dry Saturday beside the wet Tuesday shows what a full day looks like.
Last Christmas's page read beside this Christmas
The family's page carries each festival's lines under that festival's date. Before Christmas you read down what the same family took at Onam and what it took last Christmas, and you judge how much to allow this time. The Eid customers and the Onam customers are not the same people, and their pages show it.
The shop in the lane and the counter by the bus stand, one phone
Many Kerala families run a shop in the lane and a small counter near the bus stand. Add both under one account, and at night you see what each sold and what is left in each, instead of two notebooks carried home in two bags.
Tools for a Kerala lane: the bill before the umbrella opens, festival credit and a QR for the rainy day
Bills on your phone
The bill goes to the customer's WhatsApp before she opens her umbrella, so no paper slip is left on a wet counter.
Credit book (khata)
One page for a family across Onam, Vishu, Eid and Christmas, each festival's bills on their own dated lines, so you and the family can read which festival a balance came from.
Offers for regular customers
A coupon handed over on the day a family clears its Onam page, for it to use when Vishu fills the counter.
What Kerala shop owners ask before they start
On a hartal day my shop stays shut. Will that blank day spoil my report?
No. A day with no bills shows as a day with no sales, nothing more. The days before and after keep their own lines, so the week still adds up.
Families take goods in Onam week and pay after the festival. Can I keep that apart from the rest of the year?
Yes. The Onam weeks and the weeks after the festival sit on the same page, so you read the gap between what a family took in Onam and what it has paid since.
I buy some goods in the Broadway lane and some from a local maker. Can I keep the two lots apart?
Yes. Put where each lot came from in its name, the Broadway lane or the local maker. The bill and the count then say which lot was sold and which is running low.
Chalai, Broadway and Kottakkal: three trade names of Kerala
Chalai in Thiruvananthapuram is called Kerala's oldest market, believed to go back to the 14th century. It is also called a one-stop place for shopping, so a small shop nearby sells to people who have the whole market a few steps away.
Broadway Market in Kochi is a busy wholesale market for spices and dry fruits, and the Mattancherry Spice Market sells pepper, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. A shop that stocks from these lanes sells the same goods by the kilo or the quarter at its own counter.
Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala in Malappuram district makes over 550 Ayurvedic medicines and sells through more than 1,600 authorised dealers. That is a great many shops stocking one maker's range, each keeping its own count of what is on the shelf.