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A bad tempered exchange between a supermarket worker and a shopper would not normally make the headlines, even in British "silly season" summertime.

But reports that an employee of Sainsbury鈥檚 鈥� Britain's third largest supermarket chain 鈥� had refused to serve a shopper with a mobile phone clamped to her ear earlier this month聽caused a national whirl of excitement, with commentators and even Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg piling in.

When the incident, which took place in a London store, was first reported, on perhaps a quiet news day,聽Sainsbury鈥檚 issued a statement saying said it had apologized to the shopper and offered her some vouchers.

The company was subsequently besieged with messages of support for its employee. Commentators hailed her a heroine of righteousness. Mr. Clegg weighed in, telling a radio station that people talking on mobile phones during meetings 鈥渄rives me round the bend. I have an old-fashioned view that people are supposed to talk to each other.鈥�

Sainsbury's put out a later statement saying it was 鈥減leased the story is leading to a wider debate on politeness."

The story was not about politeness, though. The supermarket聽worker had in fact forgotten her own manners by reprimanding a customer as if she were her child.

But聽it touched a social nerve that seems increasingly sensitive to the intrusiveness of mobile phone technology.聽

"This fuss happened at a time when there is an uprising in Egypt, violence in Syria 鈥� why?" asks Will Norman, an anthropologist and the author of "Charm Offensive," a survey into British civility. "Because people mind about these things," he says. 鈥淭here has been growing use of this stuff. The technology has become so omnipresent that people are beginning to question it, to realize, this behavior seems rude."

New Rules?

Debretts, publisher of etiquette handbooks as well as its better known encyclopedia of British aristocrats, has responded to this feeling with a new guide to the correct use of communications technology. Most Brits will likely find it too strict, with its chastisement of anyone who speaks on the phone in front of their friends 鈥� 鈥渢he height of bad manners."

Angela Marshall, an image consultant who writes a blog on etiquette, says mobile phone manners vary from place to place and between ages, with young people in London the rudest.

鈥淏ut companies, businesses, will start to pick up on the fact that manners do matter and start to develop rules about the use of mobiles," she says.

In society at large, meanwhile, Mr. Norman has begun to observe what he calls 鈥渘udges鈥� which suggest new, unofficial tenets are evolving on when and where the use of mobiles are unacceptable.

He cites the increasing number of shops and businesses that have started putting signs up banning the use of mobile phones during transactions.

The experience of Darren Room, proprietor of Little Red Roaster, a coffee shop in Norwich, east England, suggests that people can respond quickly and uncomplainingly to new rules.

Last year, he put up a sign in his caf茅 requesting customers desist from talking on the phone while they were being served.

鈥淲hen we put the sign up we weren鈥檛 even thinking of etiquette but rather the fact that when someone was speaking on the phone we couldn鈥檛 communicate with them properly to give them top quality service," he says.聽

He has since taken the sign down. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not really necessary any more because people understand it鈥檚 not the done thing."

鈥淭he odd person does stand there talking on the phone,鈥� he adds, 鈥渂ut I and my staff now feel much more confident about not serving them until their conversation is finished."