Cosmo Covered Up

I’m taking this opportunity to toot my own horn, and encourage you to follow my lead.

A few weeks ago I was doing my weekly grocery shopping at the Jewel when I noticed a rather scantily clad young woman on the cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine.  I’m not overly shocked by these things since it’s everywhere, but when I read the topics of that months issue, I was appalled that it was front and center of the check out line at the Jewel!

I won’t write what the magazine said, but it included some swears and other inappropriate material.  My girls are not old enough to read yet, but my oldest is getting there.  I was also concerned about the other children who stand in these lines everyday.

So I picked up the magazine and politely told the checkout fellow who was in his early 20s that I didn’t think this magazine was appropriate for the Jewel check out line.  He actually agreed and even went on to say, “young girls read this stuff and that’s totally inappropriate!”  I asked him if he could talk to the manager and see if they could remove the magazine.  He said he would.

I headed home and I told my husband about the whole situations.  He told me to to contact the manager myself so I did.  We had a nice, understanding chat and he said he would have to check with upper management in order to have the magazines removed.  A short bit later I received a call from the Jewel saying that upper management completely agreed with me.  They removed the magazines.

A few weeks, and the next month of Cosmo magazine later, I was again shopping at the Jewel.  Again the cover of Cosmo had a swear on the front.  I went straight to the customer service desk and told them that the current month’s magazine was just as bad as last month’s and would appreciate it if it was removed from the check out line.  The woman seemed a bit annoyed and said, “You’re the only one that has complained.”  To which I replied, “well, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and they always say it only takes one person to be a hero.”

She removed all the magazines that day.

A week later, I went to the Jewel with my mother-in-law.  As I was waiting in line, I noticed that all the Cosmo magazines were back on the shelves, but every single one in every single line was covered over with a cardboard placard.  If someone wanted Cosmo, they could still find it, but the inappropriate words and images were coverd up.

I explained the whole story to my mother-in-law and she was so impressed.  I felt proud.

This entry is filed under Culture Wars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.