‘Is the Customer Always Right?’

Straight-Up With a Twist

By Edwin Decker

Hi Ed, I co-own a small, boutique clothing store in San Diego. A few days ago, a woman came to the register with a vintage leather aviator jacket. When I went to ring the item up, I noticed that the price on the tag was $29 when it should have been $299.

I apologized and said it was a typo but she demanded I honor the price on the tag. I told her that as a small business owner, I could not afford to let the jacket go that cheaply. She insisted that I was required to honor the price on the label and gave me that old line that, “The customer is always right.” A heated argument followed and I kicked her out of my store. So, what do you think? Was I in the wrong? Is the customer always right? How would you have handled it?

Sincerely,
Just an Independent Businesswoman Trying to Get By

Dear Indie Businesswoman,

thanks for the questions. I will answer them in order.

1. “Was I in the wrong?”: Well certainly not morally. You have no moral obligation to release an item that far below the asking price. It’s not like she saw the wrong price online and drove 90 miles each way with six toddlers and an oxygen tank in tow to buy the jacket. No, it was an innocent mistake that caused no inconvenience (save the distance she walked from the rack to the register) and I frankly find her demand to be despicable – especially during a pandemic when small businesses like yours are struggling to stay afloat.

As for legally, it’s unclear. According to Consumer Reports, federal law does not oblige a retailer to honor an incorrect price tag, providing it was an accident and that the mispricing caused no discernible damages to the customer. On the other hand, California law does not seem to have a “mistake” exception, except in certain situations. However, as Attorney Bryan Whipple from LawGuru.com put it, “I don’t think there’s a judge in the country that would require the store to sell at the mistaken price.”

2. Is the customer always right?: As a former bartender who has heard this phrase more times than a Baldwin has had to apologize publicly, I can safely say no. Much like the infamous Karen, the CAREN (Customers-are-Always-Right Entitlement Narcissist) is often obnoxious, insulting and wrong. Anybody who has ever held a job in the history of job-holding knows The-Customer-is-Always-Right idiom to be provably false. Customers are wrong a lot because customers are humans and humans are never always right – ever! Not to mention, any sentence or expression that contains the words always can always be dismissed – except, of course, this one.

3. How would you have handled it?: Well, I can be a bit of a curmudgeon and do not recommend anyone following my lead, but I probably would have told your CAREN something to the effect of, “Even if it’s true that customers are always right, you haven’t yet purchased anything and are therefore not a customer – so kindly bugger off.”  I would say it politely and calmly, of course, as that tends to infuriate CARENs even more.

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Dear Ed,

Sometimes, if I’m feeling lazy or are in a rush, I don’t return shopping carts to the corral. My wife doesn’t approve. She says I’m being inconsiderate to the employees who have to go around the entire parking lot gathering all the errant carts. Thoughts?

Lindsey in Ocean Beach

Dear Lindsey,

I am pretty sure that most readers will agree with your wife, but there are other ways to look at it.

See, I remember the time when there were no cart corrals in parking lots; nor was there an expectation to return the carts to the storefront. It was pretty much understood that cart collection was part of the service for which we paid, along with the bagging of items, price checks and – most importantly — free grape-tasting. When these corrals started showing up in the early 90’s, a lot of people felt like the stores were pulling a fast one.

Much like when airlines began charging for luggage, cable providers started “renting” cable boxes and when so-called “service” stations stopped pumping gas for customers, many of us thought, What gives? We are losing services yet paying the same prices? I and many others had been conditioned to believe the store is responsible for gathering carts and while I have mostly been browbeaten into conformity, I still hear a little voice saying, “Sucka” every time I do. But that’s just me.

I understand that many – especially those who are too young to remember the carefree days before Skynet installed the cart corrals – do not feel the same. It makes perfect sense for them to think that the responsibility of cart-corralling has always been on the customer so, what is the big deal? The point being, it is a matter of perspective.

Then there is the issue of job elimination. Your wife is nobly concerned for cart pushers but it’s not them we are helping when we return carts to the corrals. We are helping the store. Because, if all the carts are in one place it will take less time to gather them, which means fewer hours, which means, ultimately, fewer jobs.

Of course, it also leads to lower operating costs and cheaper goods which, too, is a valid concern. The point, again, being – it’s a matter of perspective. So, my advice is to do what suits you. Just be sure to secure a wheel or two in a plant border or parking pylon before telling your wife — calmly and politely — to bugger off. After that, go ahead and call Bickford, Blado and Botros which is a well-known San Diego divorce firm because, as I keep saying, heed my advice at your peril.

Edwin Decker (of Ocean Beach) is not a licensed therapist or psychologist. In fact, his only qualification is the 25-plus years as a bartender listening to the liver-aching of desperados and dipsomaniacs. Heed his advice at your peril

Send questions to ed@edwindecker.com