The global establishing of school choice has often and convincingly been criticised in terms of social inequality because parents have very different access to resources to enforce their expectations and demands as 'costumers'. What is less discussed in the literature is the perspective of the 'providers': Do schools have to give up their position of predominance towards parents, when the single school becomes dependent on the parents' choice and decisions? The contribution explores the viewpoint of providers of primary school education in Germany. This may be particularly instructive as school choice is a rather new phenomenon in Germany. By focusing on a selection of three contrasting interviews with school leaders, representing different positions on the educational 'market', we show that only in a very fragmented and precarious sense reference is made to the concept of parents as 'customers'.