Billing for your hardware and paint shop in Manipur
Cement by the bag, sheets by the piece, paint by the tin: a house built in stages, on one page.
Why a house built in stages leaves the hardware counter with five notebooks
The roof sheets are bought last, after the harvest or the salary
A family builds its house in stages: the plinth when it has the money, the walls after the next crop or the next salary, and the roof sheets last, once the paddy is sold or the salary comes. The sheets are the dearest line of all, and the family counts the weeks until it can buy them while the house stands open to the sky.
A price for the whole roof, asked for in one breath
A man asks what the whole roof will cost: sheets, nails, ridge caps and a bucket of paint. You add it up on a scrap while he waits, and the scrap is the only record. When he returns a week later with a slightly different list, the first scrap is gone. A hill farmer who comes in the planting weeks may not come again until the paddy is cut, and what he took is what you will remember least.
Sickles and hoes taken before planting, paid for after the paddy
Before planting a hill farmer takes his sickle and hoe and says he will pay when the paddy is cut. Many farmers from the same villages say the same in the same weeks, and by harvest the shop is owed by half the hill. Who took what, and in which week, is in your memory and nowhere else, and the paddy money comes on a day nobody can name.
Stoneware in Bishnupur, terraces in Senapati and farms in Ukhrul: who builds and who farms
A hardware shop supplies both the men who build and the people who farm. These districts show both.
- Bishnupur is known for stoneware, and its district headquarters is popular for hill-grown oranges, yongchak (tree-bean) and vegetables.
- Senapati's farmers grow paddy, maize, cabbage and potato on terraces, and 80% of the district is forest.
- In Ukhrul, cultivators are 64.6% of main workers (2011 Census).
- Imphal East has 45,346 business establishments (Economic Census 2013).
Tools for a counter of cement bags, roofing sheets and sickles
Orders to suppliers
The order for sheets and pipes to the supplier outside the state, with a note of the lengths that came off the lorry.
Credit book (khata)
A page for a house under construction, and a page for the hill farmer who takes his sickle now and pays after the paddy.
Low stock warnings
Cement bags and roofing sheets listed as short before a mason arrives with a list that needs all of them.
From the plinth to the roof sheets, and the godown behind the shop
The roof stage waits for the harvest
A family's page can stay open at the last stage. The walls are paid, and the roof sheets are on the page with their day, waiting for the paddy to be sold. When the money comes it is written once and the page is closed. The mason, who is often the one who comes, does not need to carry the family's money or memory, because the page already has both.
The bill for the village committee's school roof
A village committee builds a roof for its school hut and the treasurer needs a bill he can show at the next meeting. Make the bill for the sheets, nails and paint and send it to his phone, with each line in its own unit. The committee's money comes from the village and from a scheme, and each wants to see where its share went. With each line in its own unit, the treasurer can show the sheets against one and the nails against the other, and the roof is finished before the rains.
The new boy learns the shop from the phone
A boy who joined last week is sent for the long sheets at the back. The phone tells him how many stand there and how many bags the godown holds, so he comes forward with the right number and does not have to ask the owner. The customer who asks in the evening is given the same answer as in the morning.
Questions Manipur hardware shops ask
The lorry that carries sheets to a hill village charges by the load. Can the freight be a line on the bill?
Yes. Make the freight an item with its own rate and put it on the bill beside the sheets, so the village reads the whole cost on one bill.
The cement for the hill village comes in two lorries, one after the road is cut. Can each lorry's freight be seen?
Yes. Make a bill for each lorry's bags, with the freight as a line of its own on that bill. The two bills sit on the man's page, so he sees each lorry's freight, and the rate of the bag stays what it is.
Nails are sold in paper twists. Can a twist be a unit?
Yes. Make the twist the unit of the nails item and give it a rate. A customer who asks for three twists is billed for three.
What the long road does to a bag of cement
Traders in Imphal say the retail price of popular cement brands has gone up by Rs 80 to Rs 100 per bag, largely because of higher freight costs. The rate you charged last month is not the rate you pay today.
Manipur gets its construction materials almost entirely by road, so a highway blockade quickly raises building costs.