Billing for your cloth and garment shop in Tamil Nadu
Sarees by the piece, cloth by the metre and the festival combo, on one bill with the stitching as its own item.
Festival combos at the counter, a wedding order across three counters and a blouse promised for Friday
Two sarees at one price, billed by four people
In the festival weeks the shop runs combos: two sarees for one price, a shirt and a dhoti together, a free blouse piece with the silk. Four salesmen at four counters work out the combo in four ways, and the customer at the cash desk hears a price that does not match the one she was quoted upstairs.
A wedding order that spans three counters
For a wedding the family buys the bride's silk saree, the groom's veshti and angavastram and shirt pieces for the uncles. Each sits at a different counter with a different salesman, each person picks at a different time, and the bill is put together at the end from three slips, one of which has gone missing.
The blouse that was promised for Friday
A customer leaves the stitching with a slip that says Friday. Friday comes, the slip is not in the box, the tailor says Saturday and the customer says she was told Friday. Before a festival, with dozens of such slips on the tailor's table, this is the argument that ends a regular customer.
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A combo priced once, a stitching day in the item's name and a Deepavali read from last year
The combo entered once and billed the same at every counter
Put the two-saree combo in the item list with its price, and every counter bills it the same. The customer hears one amount from the first salesman to the cash desk, and the report shows how many combos went and which ones nobody took.
The promised day written into the stitching item
Add the stitching to the bill as an item named with the day you promised it, and the customer has that day on WhatsApp. On Friday, when she says Friday, you both read the same bill, and the tailor knows which ones to finish first.
Last Deepavali's colours, read before this Deepavali's order
The silk saree colours and the shirt sizes of Deepavali week are read the next day, line by line. Those lines tell you which colours to ask the wholesaler for before the next festival, and which sizes of shirt to keep deeper.
Silk, cotton and cloth towns behind a Tamil Nadu garment shop
A Tamil Nadu cloth shop sells what these districts weave and spin. A few facts about three of them.
- Kanchipuram silk sarees, worn as bridal and special-occasion wear across South India, are GI-recognised, and about 5,000 families made them in 2008.
- Coimbatore is famed for the quality of its cotton and dyed fabric, and has many textile mills.
- Tirunelveli is a venue for textile shopping, as well as being known for its halwa, which visitors buy to take home.
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Tools for sarees, dhotis, shirt cloth and the tailor's table
Bills on your phone
A bill whose last line is the stitching day, kept in its own item, so the Friday promised for the blouse is on her phone and on yours.
Offers for regular customers
This Deepavali's combo is recognised on the page of the family that took last year's, and its coupon is applied at the counter without the family asking.
Daily reports
The festival days read combo by combo, so the combos that were taken in the week stand beside the combos nobody took.
UPI payments
A UPI QR at the one cash desk for the wedding order that spans three counters, each payment matched to the one bill so no counter loses it.
Your own online shop
A page showing this season's sarees and their prices, so a family in the next town sees them before the long bus ride.
An artisan trust that took its records off paper
Questions Tamil Nadu cloth shop owners ask about combos, metres and stitching
A wedding order was taken at three counters. Which counter holds the bill?
One counter makes the bill under the family's name. The pieces from the other two are called out to it and added as lines, so the family has one bill and one total.
Kanchipuram silk with zari and without zari look alike in the stock. How do I keep them apart?
Put the zari in the item's name, silk saree with zari and silk saree without. Each has its own count and rate, and the report shows which of the two the families chose.
The combo is two sarees at one price and she keeps only one. What does it cost?
The combo price was for the pair, so the saree she keeps goes at its single rate. Make a new bill for it under her name; her page shows both bills with their days.
A silk combo comes with a free blouse piece. How is the blouse piece counted off my stock?
Put the blouse piece on the combo's bill as a line of its own, so its count falls with the saree's. The silk saree and the blouse piece are then two stocks that go down together.
What festival cloth costs in Chennai
A Chennai Silks staff member said in October 2022 that festival combo offers included two sarees for Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000. A combo is a price you promise at every counter at once, and it has to be the same at the first salesman and at the cash desk.
A Chennai shopper told IANS in October 2024 that Deepavali essentials, including clothes, had become 15 to 20 per cent costlier than in 2023. A family that spends more on the same list looks harder at every price on your bill.