Billing for your cloth and garment shop in Rajasthan
Cloth by the metre, ready-made by the piece, and thirty colours of the same bandhani, all counted.
A shop of folded colour where the tape, the tailor and the cash box disagree
A lehenga set made of three pieces, priced as one
A Rajasthani lehenga set has a skirt, a blouse piece and an odhni, often cut from three different bolts. The customer thinks of one price for the set and the shop prices three pieces. Some women want only the odhni. The tape, the cash box and the tailor each work from a different list, and the remnant of a metre and a half is a loss that no one noted.
Leheriya before Teej, and every woman asks for the same one
In the weeks before Teej every woman wants a leheriya odhni, and the shop has the same few designs and colours in a heap. One design sells out in two days and the shop cannot say which. By the second week, customers are asking for what is gone and being shown what is not wanted.
One bandhani, thirty colours
Bandhani, leheriya and block-printed cotton are kept in the same pattern in many colours, folded in rows on the shelf. A customer wants the blue one in two metres. The shop has three blues and the shelf looks full, so a colour that sold out on Tuesday is found missing on Friday when someone asks for it.
The metre and the piece on one bill, and the colour that sold out
Suiting by the metre beside a stitched piece of the same cloth
A customer holds up a length of suiting, and the stitched piece made of the same cloth hangs beside it. She picks either, or both for the family. The length is typed in metres and the piece tapped, and the bill shows what she chose, not what the helper remembered.
The blue bandhani that was gone by Teej
The mill sends the blue on its own time, and Teej does not move. Keep each colour of bandhani and leheriya as its own line. When the blue falls low, the order to the mill goes that day, so it can land before Teej and not after, and the browns can wait.
The set cut from three bolts, each bolt counted
A lehenga set is cut from three bolts, one for the odhni, one for the skirt and one for the blouse piece. When the set is sold, each bolt's count goes down by the length that went into it, so the three pieces of one set are never counted from a single bolt.
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Rajasthan's districts and the cloth and craft they are known for
A cloth shop sells what the state's weavers, printers and craftsmen make, and its customers come from all of those districts.
- Jaipur is known for block printing, blue pottery and gemstone jewellery, and Tripolia Bazaar there is known for lac bangles and textiles.
- Udaipur is renowned for miniature paintings and marble carvings, and it has the Shilpgram craft village.
- Jodhpur has a handicraft special economic zone at Boranada, and is a major hub for carved wooden furniture, wrought iron and handicrafts.
- Alwar's famous sweet is its milk cake, Alwar ka mawa, sold at Tripolia Market and the markets near Hope Circus.
- Nagaur has a huge trade in dried red chillies, and its cattle fair is held every November.
Tools for a counter of bandhani, suiting and lehenga cloth
Bills on your phone
A bill that lists two and a half metres of one cloth and a ready-made lehenga on separate lines, each with its own price.
Low stock warnings
A warning when the last metres of one colour are on the shelf, before a customer asks for it.
Offers for regular customers
A discount noted for the family that bought the bridal lehenga set, so when a sister's set is ordered the offer is given at the counter.
Your own online shop
A page of the leheriya and bandhani colours with their rates, sent before Teej to the bride in another city.
A trust that took handicraft clusters onto digital tools
What Rajasthan cloth and garment dealers ask
The same bandhani pattern sells in metres and as a ready odhni. How do I keep the two apart?
Make two items for the pattern, one by the metre and one by the piece. A cut takes metres off the bolt, and a sold odhni takes a piece off the ready rack, so neither count touches the other.
A customer wants a leheriya odhni in a colour that has sold out. How do I show her the nearest one?
Search the phone for the leheriya odhni items. Each colour is its own item, so the list shows which colours are left, and you show her the nearest from the screen without opening every shelf.
I buy a bolt of forty metres and sell it in lengths. Does the stock follow?
Yes. Enter the forty metres as stock and each cut takes its length off, so the stock shows how much remains on the roll.
A bride in another city wants to see this season's bandhani colours before she travels. What do I send?
The link to your own online shop page, with the colours and their rates. She picks the colours at home, and the order arrives on your phone.
Bhilwara's suiting and Rajasthan's dyed yarn
Bhilwara in Rajasthan makes about 60 per cent of the suiting material produced in India, and it is supplied all over the country, a 2013 trade feature reported. A cloth shop anywhere in the state may be selling a length of it, so the suiting on the shelf is often a local product.
Rajasthan, including Bhilwara, Banswara, Dungarpur and Gulabpura, makes 70 per cent of India's viscose dyed yarn, which helps Bhilwara fabric makers keep prices competitive. Cloth made from such yarn is sold by the metre, so a shop wants its length counted to the centimetre.