diff --git a/rattail/clientele.py b/rattail/clientele.py
index de67a503516b172b08cf919b11496d32094abbe9..d2946b506db8d71a32334d646f1b720831bceb52 100644
--- a/rattail/clientele.py
+++ b/rattail/clientele.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 ################################################################################
 #
 #  Rattail -- Retail Software Framework
-#  Copyright © 2010-2021 Lance Edgar
+#  Copyright © 2010-2022 Lance Edgar
 #
 #  This file is part of Rattail.
 #
@@ -35,6 +35,20 @@ class ClienteleHandler(GenericHandler):
     Base class and default implementation for clientele handlers.
     """
 
+    def choice_uses_dropdown(self):
+        """
+        Returns boolean indicating whether a customer choice should be
+        presented to the user via a dropdown (select) element, vs.  an
+        autocomplete field.  The latter is the default because
+        potentially the customer list can be quite large, so we avoid
+        loading them all in the dropdown unless so configured.
+
+        :returns: Boolean; if true then a dropdown should be used;
+           otherwise (false) autocomplete is used.
+        """
+        return self.config.getbool('rattail', 'customers.choice_uses_dropdown',
+                                   default=False)
+
     def ensure_customer(self, person):
         """
         Returns the customer record associated with the given person, creating