A local Dublin butchers has vowed to continue taking their time to chat to their loyal customers and says anyone who has a beef with that policy can cut and run.
The Village Butcher in Ranelagh has even had to put up a sign saying they will not serve "rude or impatient" customers after some started complaining that they were left waiting too long.
The whinging started because the popular meat shop sensibly only allows one person in at a time, and they like to spend a bit of time talking to each customer, pointing out that some are elderly and don't get to talk to a single soul from one day to the next.
Butchers Sarah Kelly and Michael Madden explained their sign in a tweet, saying it was a necessary step to keep customers in line during the coronavirus restrictions as they defended their right to be safe in work.
"Can you believe we to put signs up on Tuesday to tell people they will not be served if they are rude or impatient," they tweeted.
"This week was by far the worst. The system we have in place is to keep everyone safe, we also have a right to be safe."
Sarah and Michael did stress however that the majority of customers are complying with their wishes, and that those few moments of social interactions within your local community could make a customer's day easier.
“Most people are lovely,” they told Dublin Live. “It's really only the weekend that the queue is long.
“People may be shopping for themselves and their elderly parents, so could spend ten minutes in the shop.
“So obviously if there's eight, ten people ahead of you it can be a long time queuing. Also I spend my day off queuing to do my weekly shop.
“A bit of humour or kindness can make things easier for us all.”
Their policy of one customer at a time will not be changing soon.
"We are a small shop," they wrote.
"We will be adhering to our policy of one customer at a time for the foreseeable future.
"We will be having the chats with our customers as we always have done. For some customers we are the only people they will get to chat with that day.
"If you don't like it instead of getting the hump and coming in and complaining do us a favour - shop elsewhere."
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