Billing for your medical store in Sikkim
The sale at the shutter at midnight, one salt under three names, and a thermometer on the same bill.
A knock at the shutter after midnight, one salt under three names, and a counter of thermometers
A knock at the shutter after midnight
A fever does not wait for the morning, and in a hill town the only chemist is the one nearest the house. Someone knocks on the shutter, and the owner comes down the stairs in his shawl, gives the strip and takes the money. In the morning the shelf still counts a strip that is gone, and the next customer is told it is in stock.
The empty strip shown in a hand, and the same salt in another foil
A father from a village above the town comes in with an empty strip folded in his palm and says, this one. The doctor's slip is in a hand nobody can read, and the wrapper names a maker the wholesaler has not sent for a month. The same salt sits on your shelf from another maker, in a different colour of foil. You know it is the same only because you have sold it before, and the boy at the counter does not.
Thermometers, ORS, bandages and baby food beside the strips
A medical store sells more than medicines. When the orderly from an army camp comes with his list, the basket is bandages by the roll, cotton by the pack, ORS by the sachet and thermometers by the piece, each a different unit. You add the lot by hand while others wait at the shutter. The next morning the count of rolls and sachets is a guess, because they were never on a list.
North Sikkim's farm families, who come down for medicines once a month
Some of your customers live a long way from the town. They come down on the days they can, and they buy a month of medicines at a time, and a thermometer with them.
- North Sikkim depends mainly on farming, and Mangan grows the larger variety of cardamom, popularly called the Cardamom Capital of the world.
The night sale billed at the shutter, the salt found under every name, and one bill for a strip and a thermometer
A midnight sale that is in the morning's count
The owner makes the bill on the phone in his hand, still at the shutter, and it goes to the father's WhatsApp before he is back up the lane, so the family at home reads what was bought for the fever. The strip is off the count the same minute, and the boy opens in the morning to a true shelf.
The salt found under every name
Put the salt in the name of each item, with the maker after it. When a customer asks for one name, you type the salt, and the phone shows every maker's strips and their count. The shelf and the phone agree on how many strips of that salt you have. A customer who asks for the first name is shown the second, with the same salt, in the same moment.
The small things ordered along with the strips
Give the thermometer, the ORS sachet, the bandage and the tin of baby food each an item with its own count. The low ones show together, so one order to the wholesaler names all of them with the strips, and the same truck brings the lot. A road shut for a few days does not leave you out of ORS and short of everything else at once.
Tools for a medical store that opens at all hours
Low stock warnings
ORS and fever salts set at a higher level for the fever weeks, so the list names the first of them to go while a lot can still be asked from the wholesaler.
Orders to suppliers
An order that names the salt first and the maker after it, with each maker's arrival noted against it. When the wholesaler sends a different maker from the one you asked for, the page shows it the same day.
Daily reports
The fever weeks day by day, so ORS, thermometers and the fever salts are stocked before the next ones.
Questions Sikkim medical stores ask
A father from a village above the town takes the strip and may not be back for days. How does he know what he owes?
Open a page in his name with the village. Bill the strip with the date and send him the page on WhatsApp, so he knows the amount before he walks down. When he pays, it is taken off.
The foil of the empty strip is torn and I can read only part of the name. How do I find the item?
Type the letters you can read, and the phone lists the items that match, each with its count. Show him the lines you hold until he knows his, then bill that one.
The maker my customers prefer has not arrived for a month. Which maker do I ask the wholesaler for?
Open the weeks side by side and see which other maker's strips of the same salt sold best when the preferred one was short. That is the maker to ask for in the meantime.
Fever in the foothills, and free medicines
Dengue and malaria have been reported in Sikkim's Singtam-Rangpo foothill belt since 2017; Singtam alone had over 200 dengue cases from August 2021.
In 2021 the Sikkim chief minister said the state would buy medicines directly from manufacturers and give free medicines to people below the poverty line who cannot afford them.