Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The customer is king


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   redirect to consumer sovereignty. History will be left intact due to the level of interest expressed in merging some material to that article. Seraphimblade Talk to me 01:53, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

The customer is king

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Non-notable expression, unreferenced, fails WP:DICDEF, contested prod. WWGB (talk) 05:58, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions. WWGB (talk) 06:03, 18 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete. Nothing here, and I'm not finding anything that could be used to bulk it up. I've nominated The customer is always right at Rfd (it redirects to Customer). Clarityfiend (talk) 09:09, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete, dictionary definition, no sources whatsoever. J I P  &#124; Talk 10:55, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Sources can be added. This is not a dictionary definition. Tinton5 (talk) 22:07, 18 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Keep or merge per below. It is a bit similar to the customer is always right, however, this page needs to be expanded more a bit, and try to differentiate from other similar such phrases. Here are some sources I found:, , . Tinton5 (talk) 22:07, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep/merge I've made a start on the similar slogan, the customer is always right, as noted above.  I find no difficulty in expanding that as it is a commonplace concept in the world of business.  For example, entire books have been written about the underlying concept such as Customer Is King and The Customer is King.  This attitude may be difficult for those who seem to delight in frustrating our readership but this is all the more reason to provide comprehensive coverage. Warden (talk) 14:43, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * You saved me some trouble. I hope that you are going to work in Herb Kelleher and Mrs Crabapple ( and ) as soon as possible, too.  Otherwise you'll have written a one-sided stub worthy of a big NPOV dispute.  ( and )
 * Also, I'll see your self-serving historical revisionist source written forty years after the fact by the president of Marshall Field &amp; Co., and I'll raise you Nella Braddy Henney from some twenty years earlier.
 * "Commercial greed, there is no other name for it, leads a firm to adopt some such idiotic motto as 'the customer is always right'. No organization could ever live up to such a policy, and the principle back of it is undemocratic, un-American, unsound, and untrue.  &#91;&hellip;&#93;  America does not want a service class with a 'king-can-do-no-wrong' attitude toward the public.  Business is service, not servility, and courtesy works both ways." &mdash;
 * &#9786; Uncle G (talk) 17:28, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Also, I'll see your self-serving historical revisionist source written forty years after the fact by the president of Marshall Field &amp; Co., and I'll raise you Nella Braddy Henney from some twenty years earlier.
 * "Commercial greed, there is no other name for it, leads a firm to adopt some such idiotic motto as 'the customer is always right'. No organization could ever live up to such a policy, and the principle back of it is undemocratic, un-American, unsound, and untrue.  &#91;&hellip;&#93;  America does not want a service class with a 'king-can-do-no-wrong' attitude toward the public.  Business is service, not servility, and courtesy works both ways." &mdash;
 * &#9786; Uncle G (talk) 17:28, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * "Commercial greed, there is no other name for it, leads a firm to adopt some such idiotic motto as 'the customer is always right'. No organization could ever live up to such a policy, and the principle back of it is undemocratic, un-American, unsound, and untrue.  &#91;&hellip;&#93;  America does not want a service class with a 'king-can-do-no-wrong' attitude toward the public.  Business is service, not servility, and courtesy works both ways." &mdash;
 * &#9786; Uncle G (talk) 17:28, 18 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Keep/merge with customer sovereignty. Given the evidence by Xerographical, I am convinced that if this article gets merged anywhere, it should be to that article. In fact, I am more inclined to merge. But the inclusionist within me can also see the subtle differences between them (sometimes you need multiple articles on the exact same topic, from the perspective of different discourses), and would therefore also accept a keep.--Coin945 (talk) 22:13, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep/merge Consider this passage...
 * Wal-Mart can’t charge more; if it does, its customers will go elsewhere. The same is true of Target and Costco. In a sense, Wal-Mart is the elected representative of tens of millions of hard-bargaining shoppers, and, like any representative, it serves only at their pleasure. - James Surowiecki, The Customer is King
 * This doesn't really seem to fit, at least from my perspective, with the customer always being right. The customer is always right seems to be more of a customer service mantra...while the customer is king is perhaps a bit broader...to include the suitability/desirability of new goods/services...as well as prices.  In other words...the customer is always right is style while the customer is king is both style and substance.  So perhaps it could just be merged into consumer sovereignty...but personally...I'd prefer to just keep it and allow it to develop.  If it fails to be differentiated enough...then we can debate merging.  --Xerographica (talk) 21:36, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Business-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 02:28, 19 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Redirect to Consumer sovereignty. I'm not convinced that either of these two sentences need to be merged there, but would have no objection to such action if others disagree. Cnilep (talk) 01:50, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, — Theo polisme  07:22, 25 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Merge to The customer is always right. They are the same thing, with "always right" being the more common expression.  Both could be merged to customer service or even customer if you like.  I feel that the expressions are notable enough for their own article. Kitfoxxe (talk) 16:52, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete After reading other people's comments I see that "the customer is king" can also be about Consumer sovereignty, as a factual statement. As well as about customer service, as advice or policy. No need for WP to define a string of 4 words whose literal meaning is clear.  Even a real dictionary would not do that, much less WP which is "not a dictionary." Kitfoxxe (talk) 16:59, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
 * There are 123,000 search results for "consumer sovereignty" but 3,510,000 results for "The customer is king". When people search for "the customer is king" why wouldn't we want them to find the Wikipedia article on the subject?  If anything...consumer sovereignty should redirect to the customer is king.  In fact, the only reason that any of you even know about the consumer sovereignty article is because I mentioned it.  Yet I'm sure that many...most...of you have already heard of the expression that the customer is king.  That's pretty conclusive evidence that the title of the article should be "the customer is king".  --Xerographica (talk) 01:08, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
 * You have a good point. Renaming Consumer sovereignty makes sense. Kitfoxxe (talk) 02:09, 26 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete Wikipedia is not the urban dictionary. I have a feeling that someone is literally going through the urban dictionary and creating wikipedia pages to boost their creation count. I wish there was a speedy delete tag that we could use for these. --Sue Rangell ✍ ✉ 20:44, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
 * You mean we get credit for every page we create? Where can I go to see how many pages that somebody has created?  How many pages have I created?  --Xerographica (talk) 03:11, 27 November 2012 (UTC)
 * http://toolserver.org/~tparis/pages/index.php?name=Xerographica. WWGB (talk) 04:24, 27 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Woah, you have way more credit than I do! *runs over to browse the urban dictionary*  --Xerographica (talk) 00:38, 28 November 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.