Billing for your footwear shop in Kerala
The school shoe in size four, the dozen rubber slippers and the pair that came back after the rain, on your phone.
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From the size four that sold out to the pair brought back with a torn strap
Each size of the school shoe counted as its own item
Make each size of the black school shoe an item with a count. When size four is down to two pairs, the phone says so, and you tell the next parent the truth before she asks her child to try it. You never again say "it is there" with a size that is not.
The football club's boots are ordered before the season and paid after it
A local club orders its team's boots before the season starts, and the secretary pays after the match season. The boots go on the club's page when they are taken, so you know what is still to be paid when he comes, and the sizes are on your shelf before the first match.
The pair that came back with a torn strap is judged against the damp
Straps tear in the wet months. Give a family a page when it first buys. When the mother returns with a torn strap, open the page and read the day on the bill. You see whether the pair was bought in the dry months or in the damp, and you decide on the spot how to put it right.
Tools for a shelf of sizes, dozens and wet-weather pairs
Orders to suppliers
An order for a dozen rubber slippers to the wholesale lane from your phone, and a note of the pairs that arrived in each size.
GST bills
A bill with GST worked out for the school or the charity that buys a lot of shoes in June for children and wants a proper bill for its accounts.
Daily reports
The weeks of Onam read day by day against the plain weeks, to see which pairs the festival took and which the monsoon took.
Chalai, S.M. Street and Thrissur: the streets where Kerala buys its shoes
A footwear shop in Kerala sells to families who also shop on the busy streets of the districts.
- Chalai in Thiruvananthapuram is called Kerala's oldest market, believed to go back to the 14th century, and a one-stop place for shopping.
- S.M. Street in Kozhikode is one of the busiest streets for sweets, textiles, electronics and spices.
- Thrissur is counted the hub of jewellery and textile business in South India and makes 70 percent of Kerala's plain gold jewellery.
Why a Kerala footwear shop counts pairs in the rain and sizes in June
Leather waits through the monsoon in a shop that never dries
Leather sandals and shoes ordered in the dry months sit through the monsoon on shelves that never quite dry. The straps go dull, a white film comes on the oldest pairs, and the price you meant to ask in March cannot be asked in September. The notebook says what you ordered and not what is still there, so you do not know which pairs have been sitting longest.
June's school shoes, tried on a wet floor
June brings the schools back, and the rains come with them. Parents walk in wet, the children's feet are damp, and every pair is tried on a floor that never dries. A black shoe that looks right in the shop pinches by the school gate. A mother who has walked through the rain will not come back for a second try, so she asks for the next size at once.
The clearance after the rains, and a loss you cannot see
When the rains end you cut the price of the rubber pairs left on the shelf. Some were bought at a higher rate in June and some at a lower one in August, and the notebook holds one figure for the lot. At the end of the sale you know the cash in the box but not whether the clearance made money or lost it.
Questions Kerala footwear shop owners ask
A dozen of rubber slippers comes in mixed sizes and colours, and one colour goes faster than the rest. How do I know which colour to leave out of the next dozen?
A monsoon buyer wants the dark slipper that does not show the mud, and the bright colour sits. Count each colour of the dozen as its own item and the dark one's count falls first. Leave out of the next dozen the bright colour that did not move.
I bought rubber slippers in May at one rate and again in July at a dearer rate. How do I sell the cheaper lot first?
Keep the two lots as two items, with the month in each name and its own rate. The July lot cost you more, so give it a rate that still leaves a margin, and sell the May pairs first while the rains last.
Four children in one family need slippers in the wet weeks. Can the family get a lower rate than for one pair?
Yes. The slipper keeps its usual rate on the phone. On that one bill you change the rate for the four pairs, and the next customer pays the usual rate again.
Broadway's shoe shops and a prison's rubber slippers
A footwear shop lives by its order dates: school shoes are wanted before June, rubber slippers before the first rains and sandals before Onam, each in the sizes that will run out first. The orders go to wholesalers, and on Broadway in Kochi wholesale and retail shops sell shoes, bags, clothes and more, with heavy festive-season shopping.
In November 2020 the Poojappura Central Prison in Thiruvananthapuram began selling rubber Hawaii slippers at Rs 80 a pair under the brand name Freedom Walk. A shop that sells rubber slippers sells next to that rate, and a customer who knows it will ask why yours is a little more or a little less.