The customer is always _____?
I’ve been having fun reading this epic Metafilter thread about some blogger who was denied espresso over ice at his local coffee shop. The coffee shop owner claimed that it’s because espresso over ice goes sour and icky, and anyway most people just turn around and make “ghetto lattes” with it. The blogger felt like he should be able to order whatever he wants, coffee-snobs be damned. The MeFi discussion pretty much covers the whole spectrum. I was particular interested when people started bringing other service professionals into it. Like, should a good bartender serve a customer single-malt scotch and soda? Would a true culinary artist acquiesce to a customer’s demand for risotto with a side of spaghetti? Should a real music fan refuse to sell a treacly Steve Wonder hit? Or – to make it relative to my own experience – should a yarn store employee sell a newbie Feathers yarn to make their first scarf?

Personally, I tried to talk people out of bad decisions. If I felt they were going to be disappointed with their project, I’d tell them why their chosen yarn wasn’t really suitable for their pattern. Then I’d suggest alternatives. But I’d never go so far as to refuse to sell them what they wanted. If they want to kill themselves making a aran jumper out of cotton or a six foot long scarf out of Feathers, so be it. We’d had a “Knitting Nazi” working at the store before, and it’s just not good for business.