I don’t know a lot about retail sales, but I do know enough to be sure that the customer is not always right.

While standing behind the register, I have had customers:

Ask me questions for an hour about what I think about a range of products and then leave without buying anything. You never know why, but I’m sure some of them wanted to look at and compare products and get free advice, then go find it cheaper on the Internet. If they do it twice, I can be pretty sure that’s what is happening. The third time, I can be certain.

Insist on a price that is lower than the wholesale price of the item.

Call me stupid or a liar.

OK they could be right on this one, but they usually have no way of knowing that when they make their comments.

A new book on the topic, “The Customer is NOT always right” by A.J. Adams got me to thinking about the phrase, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

I rarely use Wikipedia because the fact that virtually anyone can add things to it makes it sometimes unreliable and occasionally blatantly untrue. But looking the phrase up in a source that is not always right seemed appropriate to me in this instance.

According to Wikipedia, the “customer is always right” is usually attributed to Harry Gordon Selfridge, an American retail magnate who worked at what became Marshall Field in Chicago before starting Selfridges in London in 1906. The department store became highly popular, and Selfridge become well known for a variety of business and management sayings.

While at Marshall Field, he was the first to promote Christmas sales with the phrase “Only … shopping days before Christmas.” And he talked a lot about the importance of being a leader, not a boss.

It sounds like Selfridge was way ahead of his time. People are still making money writing books about the importance of coaching and leading people rather than ordering them around.

But I think he was off base on the customer is always right thing.

That’s not to say customers shouldn’t be treated with courtesy and respect. But I think too many people take advantage of retailers and retail employees, and business owners who let their customers do whatever they want are going to lose money and lose good employees.

Setting ground rules on customer conduct is important, especially this time of year, when tempers can flare and customers can get abusive.

Customers can also be just plain wrong, and sometimes you need to tell them that. Sometimes sprinkling it with a little tact or some dry humor is in order.

One of my favorite items in Adams’ book, which is a bunch of stories about “customers gone wrong,” goes something like this:

A customer pulls up and parks in a handicapped spot in front of the store.

Me: “How can I help you?

Customer: “I’ll take a fresh-squeezed orange juice.”

Me: Oh, I’m sorry, sir, we just cleaned our juicer and the chemical that we use has to dry or else it’s toxic. We won’t be able to squeeze any juice until tomorrow.”

Customer: “What the heck? This is the second time this has happened.”

Me: “Well, we clean it a half hour before we close —”

Customer: “You should put up a sign!”

Me: “Oh, um. Well, I’ll mention that to my manager—”

Customer: JUST PUT UP A SIGN!”

Me: Sir, I don’t have the authority to do that, but I’ll—”

Customer: “JUST PUT UP A SIGN!”

Me: “Oh, and you’re parked in a handicapped zone.”

Customer: “THEY SHOULD—”

Me: “Yes, they have a sign up, sir.”

Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com