Talk:The customer is always right

Full quote?

I've heard from multiple sources that the full quote is "the customer is always right about what they want," meaning they know what kind of product or service they're looking for. Does anyone else have info on a retailer that used this phrase? BrotherSulayman (talk) 07:50, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

I heard that the original was "The customer is always right in his own mind," meaning that he honestly thinks that he has a legitimate complaint and that the retailer should politely listen to what he has to say, even if the customer is in fact wrong. 216.255.165.198 (talk) 00:02, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I have also heard this but haven't found a reliable source to reference. Hugstar (talk) 20:09, 23 October 2023 (UTC)

I heard that the full quote was "The customer is always right in matters of taste". Teo8976 (talk) 19:46, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

This has been added to the article a few times recently. I can't find any source for it, and the existing 20th century sources (from 1910s through to 1944) are very clearly about whether customer complaints should be taken in good faith, in a sales world where historically they were generally not, with no mention at all of "matters of taste".

It's possible that the 1910s phrase evolved from an earlier, longer truism about matters of taste, although this seems such a statement of the obvious (why would a shopkeeper risk losing a sale by challenging the customer's taste choices?) that I'd be surprised people bothered to say it. Belbury (talk) 08:01, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

Shouldn’t those false claims about “the full quote” be mentioned in the article? The phrase having several common extensions often posed as “the original quote” seems notable to me. 2804:14D:5490:9457:EDDC:D6C7:4C3F:7783 (talk) 02:21, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

If they can be sourced, sure, that's a good idea, but we would need a source writing about the claims and how they're false. All I'm able to find online are a few magazine articles and books that repeat the "in matters of taste" quote in passing, believing it to be real. Belbury (talk) 11:22, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Looks like the recent corrections may be zombie edits derived from a YouTube short from early March 2024, where a character describes it as "the full quote", and their boss looks it up on his phone and says "Jesus, you're right!" and makes a point about the service industry. Perhaps the YouTuber wrote the sketch on a day when the Wikipedia article did actually say that.

But I guess people who watch that video are looking the quote up on their phones and finding this page, which doesn't say anything about the "full quote", and are changing the text to back the video up. --Belbury (talk) 18:30, 21 April 2024 (UTC)

FWIW, here are some early usages I've found:

• "Mr. Editor:—Permit me to call the attention ..." The Midland Journal. Rising Sun, Maryland. October 7, 1887. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.

  [...] who uses his customers always right [...]

  (and other later similar things about treating the customer right)
• "Donald Bros. THE LINEN SALE. Continued One Day, Thursday, February 18". The Atchison Daily Globe. Vol. 15, no. 4433. Atchison, Kansas. February 17, 1892. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.

  Advertising men are all cranks. If a mistake happens in setting up the ad., then is the time the printer the whole cause of the failure. THE PRICES, THE GOODS, THE CUSTOMERS are always right. Success in an ad. is the way it is presented to the people. [...]

• "Special Notice! ... "National Light Oil" ... "White Rose Gasoline", ... Full Line of Nails, ... Bulk Oats, Bulk Starch ... Bulk Washing Soda ... KNERR'S. Manchester, Kansas". The Manchester News. Vol. VII, no. 31. Manchester, Dickinson County, Kansas. October 2, 1902. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.

  [...] Our prices are right, our goods are all right, and our customers are always right by coming to the "right place." [...]

• An article in one newspaper, followed by copies of the same paragraph in various other newspapers months later:
  • "HE SHARES THE PUBLIC BURDEN". The Boston (Sunday) Globe. Vol. LXVIII, no. 86. Boston, Massachusetts. September 24, 1905. p. 41 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Written at NEW YORK. "FIELD DIES PEACEFULLY: The Chicago Merchant and His Family Were Prepared". Springfield Leader and Press. Springfield, Missouri. January 17, 1906. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Written at New York. "FIELD DIED PEACEFULLY: The Chicago Merchant and His Family Were Prepared". The Kansas City Times. Kansas City, Missouri. January 17, 1906. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Written at NEW YORK. "FIELD DIES PEACEFULLY: The Chicago Merchant and His Family Were Prepared". Springfield Leader. Springfield, Missouri. January 19, 1906. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Stories of the Late Marshall Field". The Lincoln (Daily) Star (Evening ed.). Lincoln, Nebraska. January 22, 1906. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  • And more, e.g. The Niobrara Tribune, 1906 February 8, p. 8; Dakota County Record, 1906 February 10, p. 5

[...] Every employe[e], from cash boy up, is taught absolute respect for and compliance with the business principles which Mr Field practices. Broadly speaking, Mr Field adheres to the theory that "the customer is always right." He must be a very untrustworthy trader to whom this concession is not granted. [...]

• The same brief article in many newspapers/journals all back-to-back:
  • "Current Topics". The Youth's Companion. 79 (41) (New England ed.). Boston, Mass.: Perry Mason Company: 476. October 12, 1905 – via Internet Archive.
  • "One of our most successful merchants ..." The (Bedford) Daily Mail. Vol. XIIV, no. 55. Bedford, Indiana. November 8, 1905. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "TOPICS OF THE TIMES: A CHOICE OF INTERESTING ITEMS". Corbett's Herald: a paper for the times. Providence, R.I. November 11, 1905. p. 4 – via Google Books.
  • "One of our most successful merchants ..." The (Alexandria) Times-Tribune. Vol. 6, no. 63 (Daily ed.). Alexandria, Indiana. November 15, 1905. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "One of our most successful merchants ..." The Maitland Herald. Maitland, Missouri. November 23, 1905. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  • and a bunch more, e.g. The Carroll Index, 1905 December 1, p. 2; The Long Pine Journal, 1905 December 1, p. 2; The Placer Herald, 1905 December 2, p. 3; Ferndale Enterprise, 1905 December 5, p. 7, The Harlem News, 1906 January 3, p. 2

One of our most successful merchants, a man who is many times a millionaire, recently summed up his business policy in the phrase "The customer is always right." The merchant takes every complaint at its face value and tries to satisfy the complaint, believing it better to be imposed upon occasionally than to gain the reputation of being mean or disputatious.

• "Among the Potteries: SOUTHERN PHILOSOPHY" ["FINAL DECISION IN FRENCH CHINA CASE" is on the same page]. Crockery and Glass Journal. 65 (22?). New York: Whitemore & Jaques: 24. May 30, 1907. ProQuest 757767826 – via Internet Archive.

  In the business office of Thos. West & Co, importers and dealers in china, glassware and pottery, Savannah, Ga., is conspicuously positioned a placard worthy of the deep consideration of every salesman. Here's the way it reads: "A salesman should know his goods better than one customer or a hundred customers, and under no circumstances should be so weak as to believe for one moment, because a customer says things against his goods, that the customer is always right."

Solomon Ucko (talk) 08:54, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Missing Context Second Paragraph

The Second Paragraph quotes from Frank Farrington's 1914 work and refers to it as "The Work" but never names it or indicates what sort of work it is.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2a02:c7f:4c51:dd00:9d2a:5d0d:4bc0:b56a (talk • contribs) 07:04, 21 July 2021 (UTC)