Re: the gift shop - the owner had multiple souvenir/shell stores up & down the beaches, along with a couple of motels. He ordered giant lots of cheap ceramic geegaws, beach toys, keychains, shells, etc. from companies that specialized in such stuff, along with big cartons of tee shirts that he sold 3/$10, along with slightly more upscale nautical themed merchandise that had been on the shelves for so long it was likely already written off. This was in the early 80s and most of the shops are no more.
I have no idea what his bookkeeping entailed, but I do recall his bookkeeper lived upstairs from the shop and that she smelled boozy and had gout. He was sort of a sketchy guy, and apparently made a bundle on his businesses. Beach aristocracy in the land of pirates 😆
Income was whatever was in the drawer over the $100 we kept in there, I suppose, because counting the drawer after closing and putting aside whatever was over that $100 for the bookkeeper to pick up was part of the job. I can imagine some people might've been helping themselves to cash and never got caught.
Q