Talking Shop

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 509, 25 March 1949, Page 9

Talking Shop

{Tt might not be thought that such a subject as "Is the Customer Always Right?" would prove a very wide or

deep field for discussion, especially as the inclusion of the word "always" precludes an affirmative answer unless it can be qualified. But by a slight shift of emphasis and occasional wandering from too sharply-defined a point, the panel from 4YA managed to present listeners with an exceptionally lively session. Representatives from both sides of the counter were present, but the most tenacious was "Mrs. Everywoman" (as I think she called herself). Her pointed and accurate comments on the problem of shortages of necessary

lines was an object lesson in how to enliven a discussion without losing one’s temper, The vital question of the customer’s good or bad taste also came up for discussion, and I was in hearty agreement with the suggestion \ that if

well-designed articles in quantity were to make their appearance alongside badly-designed articles-at the same price-then the customers’ good taste would automatically assert itself. Unfortunately the well-designed article always seems to be out of reach of the average purse, and until this elementary problem is overcome, there is little use

in consumer-producer discussions as ta whose taste and opinions are in the right. "