Forget that you work in supply chain management. Instead, focus on your "shopping self" - the person that you are when you're out to buy groceries, clothes, electronics... whatever.

Before making your decision about where to shop, suppose you found out that Retailer A internally refers to you as a "consumer", while Retailer B calls you a "customer". Knowing nothing else about either of these companies, have you already formed an opinion about where you'd prefer to shop?

As supply chain folks, we all too often throw around the word "consumer" when talking about the final demand pull at the cash register, as if people were merely variables in a supply/demand equation or neatly summarized in a section of a pie graph.

I'm not one to judge others, here. If referring to customers as "consumers" was a crime, I'd be on America's Most Wanted by now. And yet we on the supply chain side of the retail business wonder why we always seem to be taking a back seat to the marketing department.

Maybe we deserve it.

As for me, I'm swearing off the word "consumer" cold turkey.