Billing for your toy shop in Kerala
A ball, a wooden elephant and a birthday gift set, each billed in seconds on your phone.
Where the families who buy toys in Kerala come from
The families who walk into a toy shop in Kerala come from districts with trades of their own.
- 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 in the city 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.
- In Kollam the state cashew corporation runs 34 factories and employs over 26,000 workers.
Why a Kerala toy shop never knows what is left on the hanging rows
A hanging row of whistles, and no count of how many hang
The wall of hanging toys carries whistles, tops, small cars and balloons in rows of ten, each at a different rate. A mother asks for the green car again and you search the back to find out whether it is there. The answer is usually a guess.
The row of ten whistles has nine
In the festival weeks children handle every toy and put it back on the wrong hook. The row of ten whistles has nine, and nobody can say whether one was sold or only misplaced. By the time the crowd goes, the hanging wall and the notebook disagree.
The carpenter's elephant has no packet and no price on it
A wooden elephant from the local carpenter comes with no brand and no printed rate. You decide the price each time, you pay the carpenter when he brings the next lot, and at the end of the year you cannot say which of his pieces sold and which are still on the shelf.
From the festival crowd at the counter to the toys that sat all year
A birthday set made up from singles and sold at one rate
In the birthday weeks you put a cap, a whistle and a balloon in a bag and call it a set. Make the set an item with its own rate, and one tap bills the whole bag. The parent who comes in a hurry for a gift is out of the door in a minute.
The week after the festival: what sold and what stayed
Open the report for the festival weeks and read it row by row, ten at a time: whistles, tops, cars, balloons. The toys that went fast and the ones that hung there all week show in their own row, so next year the hanging row has more of the first kind and fewer of the second.
The carpenter's elephants have no price on them, so the screen holds it
When the carpenter brings a dozen elephants with no packet and no price on them, set the rate on each item once, as it comes in. From then on the rate is on the screen and not on the elephant, and nobody has to ask the carpenter what he meant.
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Tools for a counter full of small toys
Bills on your phone
The Onam or Christmas gift set billed at its own rate, with the amount ready before the child lets go of the bag.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the relatives who buy for a naming ceremony and pay after it, each gift dated, so the family hears one total once the function is over.
Daily reports
The festival weeks read row by row, whistles, tops and cars each on its own line, so you see which row the crowd emptied first.
Questions Kerala toy shop owners ask
I forget the rate of a wooden toy with no tag on it. Can I look it up while the mother waits?
Yes. Open the toy on your phone and its rate is there beside its count. Pick it, and the bill is made, so the wooden elephant needs no tag and no guess.
Two carpenters bring me wooden elephants of the same size at different rates. Can I keep them apart?
Yes. Make each carpenter's elephant its own item with its own rate. The stock count and the daily report then show how many of each you have and how many sold.
A visitor buys a wooden elephant to carry home by train. Can the bill name it?
Yes. Name the item as you want it read, such as carved wooden elephant, and the bill carries that name. The visitor keeps the bill with the toy.
A mother cannot name the toy her son saw. Can I find it by the row it hangs in?
Name each hanging toy for its row and its colour, such as the green car in the second row. The list on your phone then reads the way the wall does, and when she points you find the item in a tap.
Broadway, the elephant and the Kathakali figure: the toy trade of Kerala
The toy shops of Kochi share their lane with every other trade. Broadway has wholesale and retail shops selling toys, shoes, bags, clothes, electronics and books, and it is packed with shoppers in the festive seasons, when children's gifts are bought.
Kerala's main traditional toys are rosewood animals made by carpenters, and the elephant is the steadiest seller. There are also Kathakali figures, and artists in Calicut make figures from paper pulp. A shop that carries these is selling something made by hand in the state.