Billing for your bakery and sweet shop in Sikkim
The festival box, the dawn bake and the café's monthly account, all on your phone.
The box runs out before the sweets do, and a customer who only points at the tray
The box runs out before the sweets do
Before Tihar the busiest thing at the counter is not the sweets but the box. Small boxes, ribbon and the paper that goes inside are all used up in the Bhaitika week, and nobody counted them. Halfway through the afternoon the sweets are ready and the boxes are finished, and a child is sent to the next shop with a coin for ten more. By the evening you are left with a drawer of ribbon ends and no way to tell how many boxes the week really took.
A tray of look-alike sweets and a customer who points
Four kinds of round sweet sit side by side on one tray, each with its own rate. The customer points and says, that one, two hundred grams. You know which it is. The helper at the other counter does not, and the bill uses whichever rate he guesses. A customer who was charged the wrong rate does not complain at the counter, but he does not come back for the next festival.
Two festivals, two different rushes
The weeks around Tihar are for boxes, small and neat, taken home to the family. Around Losoong the orders are for trays that go to a feast, bigger and fewer. The shelf, the pan and the staff are arranged the same way for both, and one of the two rushes is always badly served. By the time the second rush is over, you have learned how many trays you could have sold only from the ones you turned away.
Packing counted like sugar, and each look-alike sweet with a name of its own
Cake boxes and bread bags counted like flour, with a higher line before Bhaitika
Make the cake box, the bread bag and the small sweet box each an item with a count of its own. Set a line for each: a low one for the boxes and bags that sell all year, and a high one for the small sweet box before Bhaitika. When a line is reached the phone says so, a day or two before the rush has used the last of them up.
The street café's morning loaf, buns and cakes on one bill
A café owner on the street takes a loaf, buns and cakes from you every morning. Make the loaf, the bun and each cake an item of its own, and the morning's bill carries every line at its own rate, so the café reads exactly what came.
The Tihar boxes and the Losoong trays read separately
Because the box and the feast tray are items of their own, the daily report shows how many of each went in the two rushes. Next year the pan, the staff and the box order are planned for each rush, not for one average. You also see which sweets belong in the box and which only look good on the tray.
Tools for a counter of boxed sweets, bread and cakes
Low stock warnings
A line for the small box and the ribbon, so a warning comes before Bhaitika week uses the last of them, and after it a count of the boxes it took.
Orders to suppliers
The order to the box and paper supplier, kept apart from the flour and sugar one, with each arrival noted, since the box runs out before the sweets do.
Daily reports
Loaves and cakes sold each day beside the Tihar boxes and the Losoong trays, so the oven is planned for the festival weeks and for the plain ones.
Bills on your phone
A bill in seconds for a customer who takes a loaf, a cake by the half kilo and a box of Tihar sweets, each at its own rate.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the village committee that orders the feast trays and pays after the feast, with each order dated.
MG Marg's food stalls and cafes, a street of your customers
A bakery lives off its street, and the customers who walk past tell you where the busy corners are.
- MG Marg in Gangtok is a one-kilometre vehicle-free shopping street, popular for Sikkimese handicrafts, prayer wheels and flags, with food stalls and cafes.
Questions Sikkim bakeries and sweet shops ask
Visitors on MG Marg ask for one slice of cake to eat on the walk. Can a slice be an item?
Yes. Make the slice an item with its own rate, beside the whole cake. A slice sold is a line on the bill, and the day's report shows how many slices went beside the whole cakes, so you know how many cakes to cut tomorrow.
The box printer is in another town and takes days to send. How do I order before Tihar?
Send the order from your phone and note what arrives against it. Read last Tihar's bills for how many boxes went, and ask for that many and a few more.
The Losoong trays are big orders and few, unlike the Tihar boxes. How do I keep a tray order?
Bill each tray as one line with its weight and the day, on the committee's page. A few big trays are easy to read down, and the page shows what is still due after the feast.
Tihar and Losoong at the sweet counter
Tyohar (Tihar) is celebrated about a fortnight after Dasain as Laxmi Puja, the festival of lights, and includes Bhaitika, when sisters pray for their brothers' long life.
Losoong marks the end of the harvest season and the tenth month of the Tibetan year in rural Sikkim, with feasting, merrymaking, archery contests and Chaam dances.