A post office in the UK has begun fining customers £10 for being rude, but should Irish businesses bring in a similar policy?

The Welsh post office told customers: "If you're grouchy or irritable towards staff, or just plain rude, there's going to be a £10 charge for having to put up with you."

Sarah Kelly, co-owner of The Village Butcher in Ranelagh, told Lunchtime Live that she once had to hang her own sign to get customers to behave.

"This was during the pandemic so it was a little but different from the day to day."

"It was a very pressured time, very stressful time. If you're dealing with the public, you're dealing with hundreds of customers every day, and you do deal with people who are maybe a little bit grumpy, maybe a little bit stressed themselves - and that's fine."

However, Sarah said customers got increasingly demanding.

"I couldn't deal with any more rudeness from people because I was so stressed."

"If someone was having a bad day, the first person they took it out on was the person behind the counter."

On the reaction to her sign, she said: "I think it did put a few people in their places."

"There was a lot of people who were just in disbelief that we were dealing with that because 99% of the public are lovely and they're fantastic to deal with."

Staffing shortages and a general shift in customer behavior has created a "perfect storm, where people's tempers fray", according to Sarah.

Young staff

Aoife from Kildare worked in retail for years and she said bad customers with "a sense of entitlement" drove her out of the industry.

"If someone was having a bad day, the first person they took it out on was the person behind the counter."

She said younger staff were made cry by customers sometimes, and managers weren't always supportive.

"I used to go home in such a rage. I'm well out of it now. I'd never go back to retail."

She recounted an experience where a customer had lost a €50 voucher.

"She screamed the place down until the manager came out, slammed €50 on the desk out of his own pocket and asked her to get out."

"People give out to her over coffee. They give out to her about the price of the food. Anything and everything - it's pathetic.

Dave works in hospitality and said he sees the proportion of rude customers growing every month, but that the problem particularly affects young female staff.

He said customers click their fingers at staff and treat them "like a piece of dirt on the end of their shoe".

Listener Stefan from Clonmel shared his daughter's experience as a waitress: "People give out to her over coffee. They give out to her about the price of the food. Anything and everything - it's pathetic."

"Regularly my girls come in in tears. People are just so rude generally, and it's just so much worse since lockdown."

Main image shows an 'open' sign on a shop door. Picture by: hanohikirf/Alamy Stock Photo