Billing for your footwear shop in Lakshadweep
A school set for each child, a slipper for the sand and a swap when the size is wrong.
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One set for one child, and a swap that leaves a trail
The ship's list for a school island, written once
The ship's list for a school island is short and exact: the school shoe by size, the socks, the belt and the tie, each with the number to bring. The ship that brings more is not due for weeks, so the list written after the first week is the list you live with, whatever the next week shows.
The crew's order on one bill, with each size on its own line
Make a bill in the boat's name and put each size on its own line, with its own count. The owner reads one total, the shelf loses each size by exactly one pair, and the page keeps the day, so a pair that wears out in the season is a matter of finding the bill.
Slippers counted by size after the rough months
A slipper that sat a season in the damp sea air is a loss, and a size that sold out is a customer lost. After the rough months, count each size of the same slipper, so you know which sizes stood on the shelf in the salt air and which went, before the ship's order is written. The sea air does not wait for the ship, and neither does a customer who finds his size gone.
The school set in the first week and the slipper that the sand wears out
The school set that comes on one ship
Shoes, socks, belts and ties come on the same ship before term, and every family wants the set at once. The carton is opened on the counter, and parents pick through it themselves while you are billing someone else. By evening a box of shoes is a box of odd pairs, and nobody knows which size has gone and which has only been moved. The quiet months that follow are spent putting the pairs together again.
The slipper that the sand and the coral wear out
Most feet on the islands are in slippers, walking on wet sand, coral stones and salt water. Straps wear and soles thin faster than a shoe in a town lane. The same families come back every few months for the same pair, and you cannot say from the shelf how many pairs of each size went last season. By the time the visitors come back, the shop has forgotten which sizes were short.
Eight identical pairs for one boat's crew
A boat's owner buys slippers for the whole crew before the season, eight pairs of the same kind in eight sizes, and wants one bill. The sizes are the trouble: they have to be counted, one by one, off the shelf, and the owner pays when the catch is sold.
Tools for a shoe counter where the stock comes by ship
Bills on your phone
A bill in a boat's name with eight pairs of slippers on eight lines, each size at its own rate, sent to the owner's phone.
Low stock warnings
The sizes down to a pair or two, read the evening before the ship's order is written, as an island has no second chance until the ship.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the boat's owner with each crew member's slipper size on its own line, and the season's payment written under it at the end.
Barefoot on the beach, shod in the lane
Most of the islands' people work in the water or on the beach, and what they wear on their feet shows it.
- The main occupations in Lakshadweep are fishing, coconut cultivation and coir twisting, and tourism is an emerging industry.
What island footwear shop owners ask
The crew's bill is ready, but one man's size is out. What do I do with his line?
Leave that line off the first bill, and make a second bill under the owner's name when the size lands on the ship. Both bills sit together on the owner's page, and the count of each size stays true.
The sea and the coral wear out a slipper in a few months. Can I see which sizes keep coming back?
Keep each size as its own item. Over the months, read the days: a size that sells again and again between ships is the size of the slipper the sea wears out, and it goes on the next ship's list in a larger number.
A boat's crew buys again next season. Can I see last season's sizes?
Yes, from the owner's page. The sea and the coral wear the crew's pairs out before the next trip, so they will want new ones, but ask each man if his size has changed since last season.
The school uniform and its shoes
In a circular of 10 August 2023 the Lakshadweep education department introduced a new school uniform pattern that includes belts, ties, shoes and socks for children in its schools. A uniform with shoes and socks in it sends every family to a footwear counter at the start of the year.
Lakshadweep's Education Department lists modern school uniforms, including tie, belt and shoes, among its achievements. The list puts the shoes beside the tie and the belt, so a family treats them as one set for each child, bought together in the same short visit to the shop.