This is the letter I received in response to my last one:
February 20, 2008
On behalf of our President and CEO, thank you for your letter of February 15th regarding your recent shopping experience at our _____ Market on _____ Drive. We are pleased to know that you found the quality and price of your purchases favorable even though your check out experience was less than satisfactory.
We appreciate fully the concerns you expressed regarding the magazine covers displayed at the cash registers. While it is important for us as a retailer to offer a variety of magazines and other publications that represent our customers' diverse interests, it is also important for us to exercise good judgment in our display of such merchandise. As a standard practice, we offer a 'vanity' shield at all magazine display racks and ask our store directors to place the shield over magazines with questionable or prurient covers. Generally, our store directors do a very good job in shielding these covers but, as you know, this can oftentimes be a matter of subjectivity.
Your idea of having a family-friendly checkout aisle is a great one and continues to be an item of discussion in our business. In the meantime, we extend our apologies to you and your daughters and assure you we will ask our store directors to be more attentive to our display of magazines so that a visit to our stores is not an unpleasant one.
Sincerely, etc.
20080228
20080216
Valentine's Daddy
This is a letter, slightly edited, that I sent to the CEO of one of the grocery stores where I shop regularly. Tell me what you think:
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Dear Sir:
I am a regular customer at the _____ store located in the _______ area. Yesterday – Valentine's Day – I went to that same store to purchase some last-minute items for my wife and for my two daughters. A couple of weeks earlier, I had brought my wife some flowers, and my daughters were excited that I might do the same for them.
I found a large and varied display of flowers, and was pleased with their quality and price. After getting a few other items, I went through the checkout stand and noticed, as I have many other times, that there are a number of magazines displayed near each checkout stand. The covers of most of these magazines are plastered with pictures of scantily clad women in alluring poses, many of which are frankly pornographic.
As I went through the checkout aisle, averting my eyes, I thought about an article I had read earlier that day about the harm done to women – particularly young women – when society convinces them that the most important attribute they can possess is "sexiness." I thought about the numerous times that I have brought my girls through those same checkout aisles and been embarrassed to have them see such exploitative photographs.
I hope to raise my girls in such a way that they will know their own inherent worth. It is not easy to teach this concept in any circumstance, but particularly difficult when objectification of women is so prominently – indeed, unavoidably – displayed.
Please make arrangements – such as removing the magazines from at least one checkout aisle in the store – that will make shopping more family-friendly. It occurs to me that having such a family-friendly checkout aisle in every one of your stores would be a valuable advertising advantage.
Sincerely, etc.
-----
Dear Sir:
I am a regular customer at the _____ store located in the _______ area. Yesterday – Valentine's Day – I went to that same store to purchase some last-minute items for my wife and for my two daughters. A couple of weeks earlier, I had brought my wife some flowers, and my daughters were excited that I might do the same for them.
I found a large and varied display of flowers, and was pleased with their quality and price. After getting a few other items, I went through the checkout stand and noticed, as I have many other times, that there are a number of magazines displayed near each checkout stand. The covers of most of these magazines are plastered with pictures of scantily clad women in alluring poses, many of which are frankly pornographic.
As I went through the checkout aisle, averting my eyes, I thought about an article I had read earlier that day about the harm done to women – particularly young women – when society convinces them that the most important attribute they can possess is "sexiness." I thought about the numerous times that I have brought my girls through those same checkout aisles and been embarrassed to have them see such exploitative photographs.
I hope to raise my girls in such a way that they will know their own inherent worth. It is not easy to teach this concept in any circumstance, but particularly difficult when objectification of women is so prominently – indeed, unavoidably – displayed.
Please make arrangements – such as removing the magazines from at least one checkout aisle in the store – that will make shopping more family-friendly. It occurs to me that having such a family-friendly checkout aisle in every one of your stores would be a valuable advertising advantage.
Sincerely, etc.
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