Billing for your toy and gift shop in Punjab
A baby's first Lohri basket, a giant teddy and a child's cycle with its fitting, all on your phone.
Cycles and lac toys behind a Punjab toy shelf
A toy shelf in Punjab stands next to the state's own crafts and its sports trade.
- Jalandhar is where India's sports goods industry is based; most of the exports go to the UK, USA, Germany, France and Australia.
- Hoshiarpur is known for sheesham wood inlay furniture and lac turnery; around 100 to 150 artisans practise the inlay craft.
Why a Punjab toy shop is asked for a baby's basket, a teddy for a wedding and a cycle with fitting
The first Lohri of a new baby, bought in a basket
When a family has a new baby, the first Lohri is a big evening, and the relatives arrive with gifts. They come to your counter the day before and ask for a basket: a rattle, a soft toy, a small drum and a wrap. You pick the pieces, tie them up and quote the sum in your head. By the evening three baskets are out, and none of the three sums was written down. The family that came for a basket remembers it as a happy evening. You remember it as the evening you could not say what you sold.
The giant teddy that waits on the wall for a wedding
A teddy taller than a child hangs on your wall for months, and then a family comes the week before a wedding and wants it wrapped. Meanwhile it is counted among the toys that have not sold, and nobody remembers what it cost you or what it should sell for. A toy that hangs unsold is a toy whose price you have to recall each time someone asks.
A child's cycle that comes in a carton and leaves assembled
Children's cycles and tricycles arrive in cartons. The buyer wants it built, with the seat set and the bell on, before they leave. The cycle and the fitting are two different things, and the fitting is an hour of your helper's time that is never on the bill. The family stands by the counter for the hour it takes.
From the first Lohri basket to the cycle that leaves assembled
One rate for the giant teddy, said the same way for months
The giant teddy hangs on the wall for months, and in those months many people ask what it costs. Put the rate on its item once, and whoever is at the counter gives the family that comes before the wedding the same answer. The answer does not change between the first month and the last.
The baby's basket on one bill, each piece on its own line
Each rattle, soft toy and wrap is an item with its own rate. Pick the pieces, and the bill lists them with the amount. The relative who is paying sees what is in the basket, and the second basket made the same evening comes out at the amount it should. The family sees that the wrapping was counted too.
The family waits an hour while the carton becomes a cycle
A cycle comes in a carton and leaves built, and the family waits for the hour of building. The fitting is an item with its own charge on the bill, and the cartons not yet built stay counted in the godown, apart from the shop.
.JPG){kind=link}
Tools that fit a toy and gift counter in Punjab
Online orders
The soft toys and teddies a family picks for the first Lohri basket, ordered from your own online shop, so the basket is packed and waiting before they come.
Godown stock
The boxed cycles and the big teddies in the godown counted apart from the ones on the shelf, so the shelf is filled from a count and not from a look.
Daily reports
Which toys, teddies and cycles sold in which week, kept day by day, so the weeks before a wedding season can be opened next year.
Questions a Punjab toy shop owner asks
A family changes its first-Lohri basket by one piece at the last minute. How do I correct the bill?
Change the piece on the bill before it is sent, so the counts of both pieces stay right. If the bill has already gone, make a second bill for the new piece under the family's name.
The wedding season is over and the giant teddy is still on the wall. How do I put a lower rate on it?
Change the rate on the teddy's item. The next bill carries the lower rate, and if the teddy sells, the count goes to nothing and the daily report shows the sale.
On a mela day boys buy dhols and whistles one at a time, but I order them by the dozen. How do I see how many dozens went?
Keep the dhol and the whistle as items sold by the piece, and read the day's pieces at night. The pieces sold on the fair day, counted in twelves, tell you how many dozens to order for the next one.
Toys from the bazaar and from a Zirakpur maker
Amritsar's Khadonayan Wala Bazaar now sells idols, terracotta toys, figurines and earthen lamps, with roadside Diwali stalls set up ahead of Diwali eve. In the fortnight before Diwali a toy shop holds its clay lamps and figurines in small counts, and a piece that breaks on the shelf is noted so the count stays the count of whole pieces.
Zirakpur-based Toyzland makes customised soft toys and supplies retailers in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Chandigarh, a Tribune feature reports. A retailer who buys soft toys in lots can note each lot when it arrives and see what is left.