The whole saying is actually “The customer is always right, in matters of taste.”

The saying has been corrupted. Selfridge originally meant the saying to mean customer complaints should be treated seriously so that customers do not feel cheated or deceived. Nowadays people take it to mean the customer can do no wrong and is king of all he surveys.

"The Customer is Always Right" originally referred to the pricing of an item. Meaning if the customer thinks it's a good price, then you've picked a good price. That's it. It was never meant to be used as an excuse to bend over backwards to your customer's every whim

The full quote is "The customer is always right in matters of taste."

In matters of taste.

They're still idiots. But people forget that second part, and become extremely entitled little shits.

I think the saying is an abstract concept and began because the customer is always right if the business is doing well or not, but somehow the meaning got twisted around to an abomination of "Customer is entitled to bully, throw a tantrum and be arrogant and demanding."

As a German I had a good loud laugh about that.

Maybe because that's not the full quote and you're misunderstanding the meaning. This is like when people think "survival of the fittest" means the strongest/fastest etc.

The trick is finding which customers are entitled idiots and un-customer them.

“The customer is always right” is a bad maxim, just like “caveat emptor” that it replaced was a bad maxim.

A better one should be something like, “Valid customer complains should be taken seriously.” Sometimes business do something wrong and should have to fix them; other times, customers are full of it and should be informed as such.

Other people have covered the true definition, so let me pick apart your examples.

Bigger and less fuel efficient vehicles are being produced because of fleet emission standards, as trucks and SUVS don't count towards your "fleet" lineup. So companies are producing and pushing these hard, otherwise they will need to go mostly electric very quickly to meet emission standards. (It's stupid I know, but blame lobbying and very old policies made to protect the American truck market).

Bigger and more fattening meals are being produced because they can charge more and using less healthy ingredients is typically cheaper. Much of the cost of your meal is the labor. So restaurants would rather serve you 4x the average serving size of your favorite pasta dish for $26 than a healthy portion for $18. The cost difference for the ingredients are nearly negligible compared to overhead and labor.

All of this is about profits, no one actually asked for any of this (and good luck making businesses go backwards and give up profits). I don't know the specifics regarding the housing market and the trend towards building mcmansions, but I would bet there is a profit incentive and it's not purely demand driven as well.

Most people misunderstand the meaning, it's not each customer that is always rights, it's the customer base as a hole, but even that is meaningless when everything is owned by a handful of monopolies so consumers don't even have a choice.

Is it even widely used anymore?

That saying was not meant to be interpreted as literally true - it was designed to extract more money from customers who would generate repeat business = moar profits.

I don't understand how a "rude customer" is related to "most people buy big cars." Also, the customer is always right is an American thing, that may explain why I'm confused.

Last but not least, I bought the smallest car available because I wanted this. Most people buy big cars because they are influenced by the things around them, it doesn't mean that they are rude to the cashiers.

You’ve got a point but remember what we say, The aphorism is always right.

So let’s cool it with the anti-aphorism talk eh?

https://notalwaysright.com/working/

The site has expanded to other not always right things 👍

the customer is always an asshole

Although perhaps that's not the best example of a service worker lol