Cafe society hung up on the mobile phone

Aug 5, 2010, 8:14 GMT

Sydney - Warning signs are going up at the counters of Sydney cafes imploring customers not to continue a conversation on their mobile phones while ordering takeaway coffees.

'We feel we deserve a bit of respect,' said Pentimento cafe counter assistant Amanda Poke.

The signs - a mobile phone within a red circle with a line through it - are already common in post offices, banks and government offices. Their extension to a service sector where the customer has customarily been king needs some explaining.

Ben Soutter is the proprietor of Katipo's in trendy Bondi Beach. His sign went up after a customer appeared to want him to wait to take her order until she had finished her phone call.

'She sighed and said 'hang on' to the person on the other end of the phone,' an aggrieved Soutter explained.

Some cafe proprietors say the ban is in the interests of their customers because counter staff don't want to get orders wrong. Others are less diplomatic and admit it is a response to rudeness.

They note that it is not only staff that are being treated disdainfully but other customers as well. Taking the order of someone busy with a phone call takes extra time.

Sydney is likely taking its cue from New York, where printed signs setting the rules for mobile phone use in cafes were first spotted.