Billing for your footwear shop in Maharashtra
Every pair by size and colour, from the Kolhapuri chappal to the school shoe, on one phone.
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Where footwear, plastic and buyers come together in Maharashtra
Footwear in Maharashtra is made, sold and worn across a handful of districts:
- Thane is third in Maharashtra for industry, and it makes chemicals, medicines, plastic and iron goods and powerloom fabrics, so plastic goods like slippers are made close to it.
- Pune district makes trucks, scooters, motorcycles and rickshaws, so there are many working families who buy by the pair.
- Solapur is a major textile hub, famous for its woven chaddars (cotton sheets) and towels.
Why a Maharashtra chappal shop has fifty pairs and not one in the size asked for
A wall of pairs and the size that is not there
A customer asks for a Kolhapuri chappal in size eight, in tan. You turn the rack, climb a stool and look in two boxes. The pair in size eight was sold last week and not written down. The customer walks out, and you do not know whether to reorder that size or not. A chappal shop carries dozens of styles in a dozen sizes, and the notebook cannot keep that grid.
A maker's lot that comes when it is ready, not when the rush starts
Handmade Kolhapuri chappals are made in the maker's own time. A lot arrives with too many of one tan and none of the dark ones, while the wedding rush is already at your door. You spend an evening on the floor with the boxes, counting what came against what you asked for, and the notebook has no line for the difference.
The pair that was bought on the market day and comes back on Tuesday
A man from the village buys a chappal on market day, and on Tuesday his son brings it back because the strap is too tight. You swap it for a bigger size. The notebook has the first sale, not the swap, so one pair looks sold twice and the stock of two sizes is wrong. Over a month, many of these swaps add up to a number you cannot explain.
Tools for a wall of pairs
Bills on your phone
A bill for a pair with its style, size and colour, so a swap on Tuesday can name exactly what went out on market day.
Low stock warnings
A warning when size seven of the style that sells fastest drops to its level.
Orders to suppliers
A reorder to the Kolhapuri maker for the two tan sizes that ran out, with the count of every other size beside it.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the family that fits three children for school and pays in two parts, with each pair named under its date.
Offers for regular customers
An offer for the labourer who wears out a strong pair every season, so the next pair comes from your shop and not from the stall by the bus stand.
The size seven, the school week and the wedding sandal
The maker's lot, counted against what you asked for
A Kolhapuri maker sends what his hands finished, and this week it is tan. You asked for dark pairs. Count the lot in by style, size and colour, and the phone shows tan up and dark at nothing the same evening. The customer who asks for dark is told at the door, and the maker hears from you the same week.
The rains and the school week ordered before they start
Open last year's June and last year's rainy weeks in the daily report, and see how many pairs of school shoes and floaters sold. You place the order for those weeks with the numbers in front of you and keep the leather slow sellers small.
The son sent back on Tuesday with a tight strap
The man from the village bought a pair on the market day and did not try it on. On Tuesday he sends his son back with a tight strap, and the son has no bill. The shop that made one finds the pair at once, and the son carries a bigger pair home with a new bill.
Questions Maharashtra footwear shop owners ask
A customer wants a new strap fitted to his old chappal. Can that go on the bill?
Yes. He keeps the old sole and wants only the strap. Bill the fitting as an item with its own rate, alone or beside a pair. Nothing comes off the count for it.
A farmer's three children need school chappals and he will pay when the onions are sold. Whose page do they go on?
The father's. Each child's pair is a line with its size and the day, and all three wait on that one page until the onions are sold. Then you read it down with him once.
Can I keep my own handmade chappals and the bought-in ones separate?
Yes. The chappals you make at your bench are their own items, apart from the ones you buy in. You see which kind the lane takes more of.
What goes into a Kolhapuri chappal
Kolhapuri chappals from Maharashtra are handcrafted leather slippers, locally tanned and coloured with vegetable dyes, in the popular open-toed T-strap sandal style. A footwear shop that stocks them is selling a craft, and a customer may ask how it is made.
After tannery closures and a 2015 slaughter ban, Kolhapur's artisans and small chappal makers now import leather from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, The Wire reports. The maker's cost has changed, and a shop that buys from them feels it in the rate it is asked to pay.