Billing for your toy shop in Lakshadweep
A child with a coin, a parent with a list and a gift for the festival: one quick bill each.
The weeks before Eid, when every child is at the counter
A festival week and a counter three children deep
In the days before Eid-ul-Fitr or Bakrid the shop fills with children, each holding a coin and each wanting something different. A ball, a balloon, a small car and a whistle are all different rates, a parent behind the children wants one gift wrapped, and another holds up a list. You make five small bills on one slip, and by the end of the evening the slip is the only record you have. The festival is a short week in the year, and the counter has to manage it with whatever it has.
Buckets and floats that sell in the visitors' season and not after
Beach toys such as buckets, small boats and floats are asked for when the visitors come and when the sea is calm. In the rough months they sit on the shelf and gather dust, and the shop keeps the money in boxes it cannot sell. You order them again next season without knowing how many went last time. When the visitors come again you order the same number as last time, because you cannot tell what the number was. A box of buckets bought in a hopeful month can sit until the next visitors arrive.
A festival that arrives when the sea is rough
The festival days move through the year, and some years they fall in the fair-weather months and some in the rough ones. When they fall in the rough months, the ship is late or thin, the shelf is bare of what the children want and the family goes home with half of its list. You cannot say how this year compares with the last one when it fell in the other season.
Small things made by hand
The islands count handicrafts among their key sectors, and a toy counter meets people who make small things by hand.
- The Industries Department names coir production, coconut-based industries and handicrafts as the key sectors of Lakshadweep.
Tools for a toy counter with a festival rush and a ship in between
Bills on your phone
A father pays for a toy and a school pencil box on one bill, because the same counter sells both, and each comes off its own count.
Daily reports
Each day's sales of beach toys, so last season's numbers are on the screen when this season's order is written.
Low stock warnings
A list of the small toys running low after a festival week, so the order for the ship has marbles and balloons on it first.
Five small things on one bill, and a gift that is paid for after
The festival carton opened with the children already in the shop
In festival week the children are already in the shop when the carton is opened. Count the toys in one kind at a time, and put the ones the children point at on the shelf first. By the time the carton is empty, the shelf and the phone agree, and the festival's favourites were never missing from either.
Counting back from the festival to the last ship that can bring the toys
When the festival date is known, count the weeks back to the last ship that can reach you in time. Open the stock list that day, see which toys are low and write the order for that ship, with the festival's favourites at the top. A ship that is missed is a festival with a bare shelf.
Money tied up in the buckets that did not sell
The daily report keeps each day's sales of buckets, boats and floats. What does not sell stays in the box, and the box holds the ship's money that could have bought something else. A bucket that did not sell is a lesson written in numbers, and not in memory. Next season the ship's money goes to the toys that sold, and the box stays light.
What island toy shop owners ask
This year the festival falls in the rough months. Can I compare it with the year it fell in the fair months?
Yes. The daily reports keep every day on its own line. Open the festival's week in each year and read down the toys, and you see what sold in each season.
The ship is late and the festival is near. How do I know if I can open with what I have?
Open the count of each toy on the phone. It shows what is in the shop today, so on the first morning you know what the festival will have, and what you cannot promise a child.
Five children come together with one slip and each wants a different toy. Can each have a small bill?
Yes. Make one bill for each child, with that child's toy at its own rate. The count of each toy comes down, and the day's sales show the five bills as five sales.
Festival days and the sea between islands
Lakshadweep's government lists its most widely celebrated festivals as Independence Day and Republic Day, Milad-un-Nabi, Eid-ul-Fitr, Bakrid and Muharram, in that order. The toy shop's busiest weeks follow that calendar, and a family's gift is chosen with the festival in mind.
The Lakshadweep Administration runs 6 high-speed crafts between the islands only in the fair-weather season, from 15 September to 15 May; 5 all-weather ships serve the mainland route. A toy ordered for a festival in the rough months has fewer ways to arrive, which is why the order is written down early.