As an undergrad in the J-school, some of the classes required to meet the bachelor degree requirements were fun. One of the ones I chose was Food in Ancient Cultures, where we read Homer’s “Odyssey” and later had a group feast at which we got to make foods based on recipes from the time period. Breads, desserts, main dishes. Deelish.
Another one was Economics 101. Huge class, auditorium-sized. My teacher in this class, who surprisingly made the class enjoyable, was also fair.
And he was fair in this way: I don’t remember what the exact topic of the day was, but I made the comment to the effect that small businesses don’t have a legal mandate to make a profit. Students in the class burst out either in protest or laughter.
What else do small businesses do, right?
But the teacher calmed the class down and asked me, “What do you mean?”
I explained that, unlike a corporation, a small business doesn’t have a legal mandate to maximize profit by pursuing, relentlessly and without exception, its own self-interest, regardless of the (more often than not) harmful consequences it might cause to others.
I mean, small businesses still have to make money to be in business, but there is more leeway in terms of what kinds of business decisions it makes or people it decides to serve. A corporation doesn’t have that leeway.
Most have probably heard the saying that “The customer is always right.” I worked many odd jobs over the years, most of them with this adage. And, at the time, it didn’t make sense.
My colleagues and I at a corporate grocery store would get this customer — a woman in her 80s — coming in to the butcher shop, saying she placed a phone order for a chicken to be cut up. We would pull it out from the cooler and hand it to her — and she would reject it, asking us to cut her a fresh one.
At first, we inwardly revolted, thinking, “What? This chicken is perfectly good.” Some of us argued with her.
Eventually, the store manager would come out, talk to her, cut her a new one while making small talk and walk her around the store, helping her gather her groceries (as our department wasn’t the only one plagued by her).
What a backstabber, we thought. And her double-ordering happened every week. (Our manager asked us to call him to the front when she came.) It would have been so much easier to say ’Nope’ to her requests.
Couldn’t. Can’t.
Doing so would have worked against the corporation’s legal mandate, as the last thing wanted would be to drive a customer away who would speak ill of it to others who potentially also shop there. Making the corporation look bad is a no-go for executives, managers and staff. This store manager knew that.
It doesn’t matter how you personally feel or think inside. The bottom line is what matters.
With a small business, you don’t have that incessant drive where customers and staff are being used as a means to an end.
As an example: A bakery/cafe I used to wash dishes at would get bad customers who’d yell about something or another. Our manager would listen, talk with them and explain things. If the customer wouldn’t understand, our manager then would ask them to leave. The customer leaves in a huff, and people go back to their pastries and coffee as if nothing had happened.
He didn’t have to worry, really, as the bakery/cafe was located in a neighborhood that supplied a steady stream of loyal daily customers.
He was the boss, not the legal mandate.
Returning to the adage I mentioned above: A good view of a corporation — outside of its mandate — is the single most important thing for it. It wants you to feel good about them. According to a corporation, the customer is always right because maximizing profits for its shareholders is the goal, regardless of whether you believe the customer is wrong.
This is where my “antiquated” views of public relations and advertising @@thought you’d like this link, thomas@@come into play: Next time you are visiting a corporation or reading or seeing one in the news, think about this legal mandate to maximize profit for its shareholders and listen and watch how everything said and done is geared toward meeting that end. Regardless of what representatives say or do, that is their goal.
Am I against them entirely? No. But I think they need limits.
Without laws and governmental enforcement mechanisms to keep them in check, they really are out of control. Because without those, they have no restrictions on what they can do or are capable of doing, as is already apparent (e.g., practices to which to the environment is affected).
Will they make less profit? Yes, perhaps. But I think that limitation is what is needed to keep things from getting more out of hand  than they already have been — because corporations are incapable of doing it themselves (i.e., “self-regulation”).
So, is the customer always right? I don’t think so.