Billing for your footwear shop in Sikkim
The last pair in the window, a resoled pair that waits at the counter, and an order made from the wholesaler's sample.
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The last pair of a style is in the window, a pair left for new soles, and an order made from one sample shoe
The last pair of a style is the one in the window
A customer likes the black shoe in the window and wants it in his size. The shelf has none, because the one in the window is the last pair of that style. It has stood in the sun for a month and has a pale mark across the toe. Whether the stock count includes it or not decides whether you promise a new pair or sell the old one. The customer decides on the spot, and he is right to wait for a straight answer. A shop that cannot say what is in the window cannot say what is on the shelf either.
Soles worn smooth on the steps, and a pair left for new ones
In a hill town people walk on steep lanes and stairs, and their soles wear down fast. A customer leaves a good pair for new soles and says he will collect it on Saturday. The pair goes on a shelf with a slip of paper, among forty other pairs, and by Saturday the slip has fallen off. The customer comes in, you look for his pair, and the only thing you can offer him is a promise to look again.
An order made from one sample shoe
The wholesaler's agent leaves a single sample shoe of each new style, and you order from it, in the sizes you think will sell. The sizes are written on a list for the agent, and a copy is not kept. When the carton comes, it is not clear what you asked for and what you were sent. You ordered more of the wrong size last year, and nothing told you.
Tools for a shelf of shoes, slippers and gumboots, and a counter that takes in repairs
Low stock warnings
A line for the black school shoe in each size, set before the new term, so the phone warns before a parent walks down from the village for a size that is gone. A style down to its last pair shows too, even when that pair is the one in the window.
Orders to suppliers
When the carton comes up the hill, the sizes that arrived short are written on the wholesaler's page the same day, and next term's list starts from what was missing, before the children come back.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the customer whose pair is at the counter for new soles, with the repair and its balance dated. The balance is billed when the pair is collected.
North Sikkim's farm lanes, where a pair of gumboots is a daily tool
Some of your customers work in the fields all day, and what they ask for follows the weather and the work.
- North Sikkim depends mainly on farming, and Mangan grows the larger variety of cardamom, popularly called the Cardamom Capital of the world.
The window pair counted, the resoled pair found by its owner's name, and a size list written once for the wholesaler
The window pair counted into the stock
Count the display pair as one of the stock, and mark it with its own item if you want to sell it at a lower rate. The shelf and the phone say the same thing about how many pairs of the style are left, and you know whether the next customer can have a new pair. The window can be changed without losing track of what is left. A pair that has been in the window a month can be sold at a lower rate, on an item of its own.
The resoled pair found by its owner's name
Bill the repair to the customer's page when the pair is taken in, with the date, and bill the balance when it is collected. On Saturday you open his page, find the line, and know which of the forty pairs on the shelf is his. The same page tells you how many repairs you take in a week, and in which weeks.
The size list written once, and kept
Write the order from the sample on the wholesaler's page, with each size and its number. When the carton comes, note what arrived against it. The page shows what you asked for and what you got, and the list is no longer the agent's alone. Next season's list starts from this season's, and the agent's sample is only the beginning.
Questions Sikkim footwear shops ask
More pairs come for new soles in the weeks before school than in the other weeks. How do I see how many I took in each week?
Bill each pair left as a repair item on the customer's page, with its day. The report for the week shows how many repairs were billed, so you read the week's number before you stock soles.
A mother in the lane asks if her son's size is in before she climbs the steps. Can I tell her at once?
Yes. A child who has climbed the steps once will not climb them twice, so the mother must know before she brings him. Tell her from the counter whether the size is in, and she brings the child once or does not come.
Spare straps and soles are sold apart from the pair. Do they need items?
Yes. Count the straps, soles and buckles as their own items. The count of straps tells you when it is time to ask the wholesaler for more, before a customer climbs the steps for a strap and finds the box empty on a wet day.
School shoes and the winter holiday in Sikkim
Sikkim's Education Department gives one pair of shoes and two pairs of socks free to government-school students from LKG to Class V, a scheme running since 2008.
A press release called the cold of Sikkim's winter vacation bone-chilling. The vacation lasted 51 days, and government schools opened again on 3 February 2025.