The saying doesn’t need to die, but it does need to be understood correctly. It doesn’t mean “The customer can demand whatever they want from whomever they want.”
Surely he’s no older than me (55) and I don’t remember seeing shoes under $50 since I was 30, if that late. And I certainly don’t miss shoes from the 1960s (not how they feel anyway).
Keep in mind that we’re talking about a fictional character here. Judging is something you do to actual human beings. Speculating about what sort of character the author has created here is not the same thing as judging a real person.
The saying doesn’t need to die, but it does need to be understood correctly. It doesn’t mean “The customer can demand whatever they want from whomever they want.”