Billing for your toy shop in Sikkim
Three mela evenings counted one by one, a toy and its two cells on one bill, and twenty return gifts at one rate.
Each mela evening read on its own, a gas cylinder counted by the balloon, and twenty gifts billed at one rate
Which toys were worth carrying to the mela table, known by the third evening
The table at the mela carries only the cars, balls and dolls that sell to children on the road, and the rest stay at the shop. At the end of each of the three evenings you read what each of them sold. By the third evening you know which of the three kinds was worth the walk.
The uncle at Dasain who does not want to give the same toy twice
Dasain is the week an uncle buys for every child in the family. Make his bill under the family's name, and the page shows what was bought for whom. Next Dasain the same page tells him what he gave last year, and he does not give the same toy twice.
Twenty return gifts, billed at one rate for the lot
Make the little car an item and bill twenty of it at the lot rate, on one line. The heap's count comes down by twenty, the parent has a bill on WhatsApp, and the next birthday party is found on the same page. A parent who comes back for the next party is not a stranger. The small items of a party fit into one bill, and the shelf does not have to be recounted afterwards.
Tools for a shop of cars, dolls, puzzles and balloons
Godown stock
The shop's stock and the boxes carried to the mela table, counted as two places, with what comes back each evening noted. The shelf in town and the table at the fair never mix.
Online orders
An uncle in another town looks at the toys on your online shop page in the Dasain week, and his order reaches your phone before he is home.
Offers for regular customers
A discount for the family that comes at Dasain and again at Losar, and for the return-gift parent whose last lot rate is on his page, so he is not asked to remember it.
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MG Marg, the walking street where children stop at every window
Toys are bought on the street where children can stand and stare, and a shop's best days follow the crowd, which on a festival evening arrives late and all at once.
- 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.
Half the shop on a mela table for three days, balloons and the gas that fills them, and twenty gifts for a birthday party
Three days at the mela with half the shop on a table
The Jorethang Maghe Mela runs three days around 14 January and has hundreds of stalls. A toy shop that takes a stall packs part of its stock into boxes and carries it there. Now the stock is in two places, and by the third evening nobody can say how many cars, balls and dolls are on the stall and how many are still at the shop. The stall is a loan from the shop, and it comes back with a different shape.
Balloons for the mela, and the gas that fills them
At the mela stall the balloon is the best seller, and every balloon is filled from a cylinder of gas on the spot. The cylinder is not in the stock list. It empties in the middle of the second evening, the queue of children waits, and nobody knows how many balloons a cylinder fills.
Twenty return gifts for a birthday party
A parent comes in for a birthday party and wants twenty small identical gifts for the children's return bags: the same little car or puzzle, twenty times. You count out twenty from the heap, and offer a rate for the lot. Neither the twenty nor the rate is written, and the heap is shorter than you think when the next customer comes. A parent who is told the rate on one visit expects the same on the next, and it is not in the book.
Questions Sikkim toy shops ask
Building blocks come in a set, and a child lost one piece from his set. Can I sell a single block?
Yes. Keep the set and the single block as two items, each with its own rate and count. A loose block is billed from the single-block count and a set from the set count, so selling one never throws the other off.
Children stop at the window on MG Marg and a visitor wants to buy a toy for the road. Can I bill him in the doorway?
Yes. Pick the toy, make the bill on the phone in the doorway and send it on WhatsApp. The visitor is on his way in a minute, and the toy is already off the count.
After dark at the mela I cannot read the rates on the toys. Where do I read them?
On the phone. Each toy's rate is on its item, so you tap the toy and read the rate on the screen, even when the tarpaulin hides the labels and the lamp is dim.
Dasain and Losar, the weeks families buy for children
Dasain is the main festival of the Hindu Nepalese in Sikkim, held a few weeks before Losoong, when elders bless the young with tika.
Losar, the Tibetan New Year, normally falls around the first week of February and is marked with feasting and merrymaking.