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Full quote?

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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)[reply]

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)[reply]
I have also heard this but haven't found a reliable source to reference. Hugstar (talk) 20:09, 23 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I heard that the full quote was "The customer is always right in matters of taste". Teo8976 (talk) 19:46, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
They are not false claims we can find, if we do a little search, articles and even videos all over the internet which point out that Harry Selfridge's Original quote was " the customer is always right in matters of taste" if you think about it it is the only form of that phrase which makes logical sense. I tried to correct the article recently but some of the user keeps deleting my corrections irritatingly and asks me for sources that I must cite. Obviously there are no definitive sources here there are however sufficient claims all over the internet pointing out what the full quote was. And as I said it actually only makes sense in the form of the full quote. To simply say the customer is always right would be a ridiculous thing for any businessman to state and would leave him open to all kinds of lawsuits. Khasab (talk) 09:17, 7 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Both versions of the quote make logical sense - of the "is always right" version, the cited Slate article says that Not that all these businessmen actually believed it was true. Instead, the saying was always intended more as a customer service policy than a statement of fact.
We've got a lot of contemporary 1900s news sources that write about the "customer is always right" policy becoming popular and how it was a contrast to the more suspicious "buyer beware" attitude of the previous century. These sources don't include "in matters of taste" in the quotation, and aren't writing about customers' tastes. Later academic sources such as the Dictionary of Modern Proverbs from 2012 also do not include "in matters of taste".
The fact that "is always right" became a popular slogan in the 1900s doesn't mean that "in matters of taste" can't also be a more recent (or even an older) variant of it, but we shouldn't make the specific claim that Selfridge's "original phrase" from the period was the longer version, or that he personally invented the phrase at all, without a reliable source to back that up. --Belbury (talk) 10:31, 7 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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:

[...] 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. [...]

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)[reply]
P.S. As mentioned by Slate ([1]), the Boston Globe article was previously printed in the Boston (Sunday) Herald on September 3, 1905 (verified via GenealogyBank preview, with content sourced from NewsBank); the Herald's article title seems to end in "Leads Country's Big Taxpayers" ([2], [3]), but I'm having trouble accessing the full thing without starting a free trial or paying.
Solomon Ucko (talk) 20:16, 7 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Worth recording this recent Reddit comment where somebody points out that Google returns no results before 2018 for the phrase "the customer is always right in matters of taste". Which is replicable for me, I just get some blog and YouTube pages where the phrase only appears in a post-2018 user comment or sidebar link. --Belbury (talk) 14:54, 7 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Missing Context Second Paragraph

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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)[reply]

"in matters of taste"

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Searching for "the customer is always right" and "in matters of taste" near each other in various academic databases, here are the results I've found so far, from oldest to newest:

  • "[???]". The Listener. Vol. 17. British Broadcasting Corporation. 1937. p. 489. Google Books -hMbx7glqa4C. [???] slogan "The customer is always right" must not be swallowed whole. In matters of taste the customer is more likely to be wrong because the traditions of good design are at present in a state of chaos. [...]
  • Post, Emily (November 2, 1945). "Good Taste". Kingsport News. Vol. IV, no. 102. Kingsport, Tennessee. p. 4. Newspapers.com 68925549. I'm sorry to say that the protest voiced in the following letter is by no means unusual: "I have been working in a large department store for several years and my patience is 'wearing thin' as we saleswomen have to take so much from our customers. Do you really believe that the customer is always right?" ¶ Tact is almost always an asset [...] ¶ [...] ("matters of individual taste" is mentioned in a different article on the same page, which is how I found this; but notice that the title is "Good Taste" — though this might be the name of the column in general?)
  • "[???]". Leathergoods / Leather Goods. Vol. 76, no. [?]. W.B. Tattersall. 1954. p. 96. Google Books X4MskE7wqUgC, rb0ibVufedcC. [...] ¶ Old Johnson's passionate defence of factual correctness has often sprung to my mind when I have heard asses laying down that "the customer is always right." ¶ In matters of taste it must be an axiom, of course. In matters of fact it will often not be. ¶ [...]
  • Atwell, Estelle (November 8, 1959). "What to Wear (Aboard Ship)". The Tribune Travelers' Guide. Chicago (Sunday) Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. p. 2 of part 6. Newspapers.com 370614449. [...] ¶ Top echelon chefs and staffs usually are trained on the continent to work for Cunard. But ship's personnel is flexible enough to remember that old axiom the customer is always right. If a passenger is a nonconformist in matters of taste and dress they accept his attire altho it may not meet the standards of the ship or dining room. ¶ [...]
  • Hanna, Charlie (February 28, 1972). "TV Fare: Customer's Still Right". Detroit Free Press. Vol. 141, no. 299. Detroit, Michigan. p. 4-C. Newspapers.com 99109443. [...] ¶ The network of people to write to on matters of taste are: [...] ¶ [...] ¶ Letter writing is the most direct answer. Even in commercial television, the customer is always right. And if enough customers complain to enough people in television and in responsible governmental positions, TV's increasing moral laxity will soon disappear.
  • Cosic, Miriam (April 19, 1994). Greenwood, Helen (ed.). "scenes from a mall : Whether you love shopping or loathe it, the customer is always right. So are retailers listening to what their clients want? As Miriam Cosic discovers, sometimes you can find yourself buying now and paying later". Good Living. The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. p. 25. Newspapers.com 120121427. [...] ¶ When it comes to clothes shopping, the problem compounds. Here are difficult choices to do with self-image and outward image, matters of taste and trend. It's a psychological minefield — and a physical hassle, too. ¶ [...]
  • Vola, Chris (October 25, 2022). "November 29: Customer Is Wrong Day: 86 Spritz". Cheers to Today: 365 Cocktails Because Every Day Is a Holiday. Countryman Press. ISBN 9781682687420. Google Books p3piEAAAQBAJ. To all the bartenders, servers, and retail workers who nearly have burst arteries after hearing that "the customer is always right," you have Marshall Field and Harry Selfridge to blame. The early 1900s retail magnates might have had an immediate hit with the catchy slogan, which in its entirety goes: "The customer is always right in matters of taste." But they failed to consider that, many times, the customer is wrong. [...]
  • Becker, Christopher (2023). The Value of Work (PhD thesis). University of Florida. ISBN 9798380606653. ProQuest 2881078342. Even so, given subjectivism's dominance in the sphere of consumption, there is the common expression that, in matters of taste, the customer is always right. Because of this, we tend to be less judgmental with the quality of one's consumption than with their production. [p. 89] / So, I do not pretend to claim that, necessarily, consumption is a judgment free zone. Even so, I think that we can still acknowledge that the maxim, in matters of taste, the customer is right, holds some sway over our norms of consumption. So long as someone has the ability and willingness to pay for a good or service, their consumption tends not to be criticized. [p. 110]
  • Asaju, Tunde (16 April 2024). "Bobrisky And The Risky Job Of Proclaiming Wakaman Nation". The Daily Trust. Abuja, Nigeria: Disco Digital Media, Inc. (via SyndiGate Media Inc.). Gale A790378763. ProQuest 3039691902. [...] ¶ Gaskiya, our oppressors have been using morsels of bread to scoop our stew ever before the introduction of sliced bread by stingy bakers. Kudos to that TikTok lady who busted the myth that the customer is not always right as we all believed but that the customer is always right in matters of taste. It is a fact known to shopkeepers in Kano's Kantin Kwari each time they try to convince a Yoruba woman to buy shadda over lace material. It's a matter of taste! ¶ [...] (Also in Sunday Trust, April 21, 2024, Gale A790920168.)

Solomon Ucko (talk) 22:24, 7 October 2024 (UTC) [updated 08:26, 8 October 2024 (UTC)][reply]

So no usage of the entire phrase before 2022, from that. Do we know who "that TikTok lady who busted the myth" is referring to, in the final source? Belbury (talk) 08:16, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see any obvious further information in the article. I've added a freely-accessible link to the article on their website, as well as the author's name. I found contact info for someone who might be the author at [4]; should I try emailing them when I get a chance? (The first and last name match, and the employer is consistent with what appears to be the author's LinkedIn page, though the job description is a bit inconsistent.) I also got a personal email address from RocketReach (https://rocketreach.co/tunde-asaju-email_121025891) that I can try if that doesn't work. I'll probably use my university email to try to appear more legitimate than if I were to use my personal email.
Solomon Ucko (talk) 08:45, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
P.S. https://www.alliance21.org/lille/en/assemblee/participants/noms/noms1.html provides evidence connecting the middle names listed on the NRC website, so it should be the same person. Solomon Ucko (talk) 09:02, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I assume it's just going to be one of the several videos I can see on the platform where a person presents the quote as a surprising fact without saying where they heard it, but it'd be good to know if there was a particularly viral TikTok video a few years ago that invented or amplified the phrase. Belbury (talk) 09:15, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, makes sense. I've sent an email, and I'll let you know if I get a response.
Solomon Ucko (talk) 19:17, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
For what it's worth the most popular TikTok video I can see on the subject seems to be this November 2022 one, where the person says that the traditional quote is "actually a shortened version". That's easily early enough to appear in a 2024 article.
Ironically the TikTok video closes by saying how this is "just like" the idiom "blood is thicker than water", where "the full phrase is actually" a longer one. (That longer version appears to date from the 1990s and has no earlier source.) Belbury (talk) 13:11, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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