You can't sell Maxim!

[k386trl]

Another one from the day I was a magazine merchandiser. So one day early in my career I'm in my store, naively putting out my magazines and my boss shows up. He starts going through my pile and snatches all of the Rolling Stone's (A music magazine) and Maxim's (A mens magazine, not X-rated) from it. I ask him what he's doing and he tells me we got a complaint that these magazines were too risque and we had to pull them. He then tells me the story of a group of elderly ladies that are retired and now spend all of their time going from store to store perusing magazines and deciding which ones are too unethical and rude to display. They then call the magazine, magazine distributer, store manager, and corporate for the particular store and demand they are removed.

In the time I was there they demanded the following magazines be removed from the shelves (I put them out anyways):
Cosmopolitan
Maxim
US Weekly
Sports Illustrated
Car & Driver
Import Tuner
Rolling Stone
People
Blender

You get the picture, almost every magazine besides their precious TV Guides, Cat Fancy, Enquirer, and Red Hat Society (Really, its a magazine). I said screw it, there are people who want these magazines, I'm not catering to one genre of people (I convinced the store manager that they would lose profits) One day I had an interaction with one of them.
SC:Old Lady
Me:
SC: Waving an Import Tuner Magazine in my face Look at the girl on this cover, she's too sexy, do you want my grandkids to see this? Why do you put this stuff out?!
Me: I'm sorry Ma'am some people buy these items. I will place it on the top shelf in back so your grandkids can't reach them.
SC: You shouldn't sell this filth to begin with! Starts ripping magazines she doesn't like off the shelf and throws the pieces at me
Me: Runs to a register 2 feet away and requests security
Security shows up, asks if I want to call the police. I tell them as long as shes not allowed back I'll be OK. Old lady gets walked out screaming her head off and subsequently banned from the store. At least her grandkids won't see Import Tuner w/Grandma anytime soon.

So the next time you're in a store and can't find your favorite magazine, or your Cosmo is hidden in back, you will know who to thank!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I can give those bored people plenty to complain about . . .all I've got to do is leave the curtains open.

Which I think is the root of their problem . . . they've probably not had a good lay since the Nixon administration.

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

ummm cosmo? us weekly? people? all sports illustrated issues?

if they find those to be offensive, they need to just have their kids shop for them, at least the magazines like maxim and several of the car ones have women in bikinis, but People?

I would have said yes when she asked if I wanted her grand kids to see it

[Bright_Star]

For goodness sakes! Maxim is nothing but Playboy without the nudes. & IF I ever go into a store & they got my Cosmo hidden away then heads are gonna roll!...lol.

[MadMike]

There's a much easier way to deal with magazines you don't like. It's called "not reading them."

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

mike, you know SCs can't do that

[Peppergirl]

Our local Kroger still has Cosmo and some of the other 'racier' magazines out in the check out, but they have a flat metal spring piece that clamps the magazine into the stand, covering up all but the COSMOPOLITAN title at the top.

Say it with me: EVERYBODY WINS!!

Still a damned shame. Censorship is such a scary thing.

[Toujin]

Since when is 'People' Magazine too sexy?

Even weirder is the fact that they found an honest mag like 'People' offensive, yet had no problem with the 'Enquirer', where the stories are pretty much based off of internet rumors and the deluded ramblings of people who claim to know the 'real' celebrity.

Sexual repression is a scary thing, my friends.

[tropicsgoddess]

It's not like they have Hustler or Playboy in reach of minors! Seriously, if you don't like it don't look at it! People like that sucky old bat are why there's so much censorship in the media.

[Custard Chick]

Ugg, we had the same problem at my old college bookstore (I just graduated May 2007). I went to a Catholic college, but we weren't ridiculously strict. The bookstore sold magazines that were popular w/ the college age group: Maxim, Cosmo, FHM, etc.

A high school senior was touring the campus w/ her parents one day. They stop in the bookstore to check it out and the dad proceeds to pitch a fit about the magazines being displayed, saying that he didn't want his daughter (his eighteen year old daugher!) to be exposed to such things. Of course, the bookstores bends to his whims and removes the magazines and replaces them w/ papers that mention if someone wants to purchase those mags they have to ask for them specifically. *rolls eyes*

Seriously though, had the girl never been to Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Target, etc?! Stupid over-protective parents. Who wants to bet that this girl became an alcoholic slut the moment she got away from them?