Harps grocery uses "Family Shield" when homophobes complain

[01fastrace]

I live in Arkansas. The majority of people in this isolated, rural, poor, highly religious hypocrite, states hate Gays, but the louder they scream the hate, the more closet gay they are themselves, I have found. I have had many male straight family men preachers hit on me for sex.

I bet the customers who complained, if they were a male, and I worked at the store, I could have talked to him and had sex with him that night. I get hit on by "straight" guys all the time.

[MartinJWillett]

The shield is clearly designed to enable them to continue to sell products which they do not regard as generally harmful. The alternative is to either remove the products from display or to refuse to acknowledge any complaints at all, both of which are bad for business.

Do you really think that a company could have sensitivity training and a manual of acceptable and unacceptable complaints written in such a form as could be understood by every temporary acting store manager? Get real.

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@MartinJWillett Sorry? I don't think I said anything about the company itself, but rather the homophobes who found the picture so offensive that it had to be covered up by that ridiculous shield.

I realize that a business will act like a business and protect its bottom line, which, in this case, meant placating the unwashed masses.

What do I need to 'get real' about? Sorry, it's still early here and I haven't had enough caffeine yet.

[MartinJWillett]

@TheRecoveringZombie *If* you think the company should have a manual that explains which complaints to humour and which to brush off I suggest that is unrealistic. Of course they can't give all their staff sensitivity training or tell them which complaints to pointedly ignore. The shields allow the staff to appear they are taking complaints about "inappropriate cover images" seriously, which saves staff being assaulted or abused, but they don't stop people buying the magazines.

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@MartinJWillett I think I was just saying the whole this is ridiculous. And maybe it isn't so unrealistic to give their staff standardized sensitivity training. I've worked in healthcare and related fields most of my working career and in every single place of employment, I underwent cultural awareness and sensitivity training. It's required by hospital regulatory agencies and the records of such training can be examined by those agencies. So it can be done.

[MartinJWillett]

@TheRecoveringZombie For retail? I don't think so.

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@TheRecoveringZombie I'm kind of surprised that you're taking a such confrontational stance with me over this little nothing of a video, especially since I'm not calling for any action against Harps grocery. I'm just calling out the ridiculousness of the situation.

[zombeepictureshow]

Great detective work. Amazing. Good job!

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@zombeepictureshow Thanks

[gorgobar]

Madness... how many more years of this bigotry will we have to endure.

Although maybe those people just hate Candle In The Wind or something? :P

I guess not :S

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@gorgobar Well, it IS Arkansas after all and Elton John is British AND gay. I'm not saying all Arkansas residents are bigots, it's just that there's more than usual there.

[heathsawyer]

boycott harps grocery store.........boycott harps grocery store.......

[heathsawyer]

History repeats itself because human nature is static.Maybe harps could accommodate these bigots with separate water fountains as well! Just what is so harmful here, other than this Harp grocery store censorship? and to top it off harps representative couldn't ever apologize " we have no opinion" I hope this store losing a LOT of customers over this!

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@heathsawyer I hope so, however corporations are only interested in protecting their bottom line. If there are more bigots than freethinkers in a given area, they'll accommodate the bigots because they don't want to lose business. 

[bushonomics]

Excellent video :)

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@bushonomics Thanks!

[JBSauce]

Because the kids can catch the gayzors from magazines these days. Wow.

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@JBSauce Easily enough solved. Just put an anti-gayzor eye drops dispenser next to the hand sanitizer. Viola!

[slanelcla]

Interesting, why don't they just take it of their shelf? The librabrian in me is a bit stupified by it, but as a gay man I am not sure if I am offended or not.

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@slanelcla beats me. I don't know if I'm more offended over the homophobia of the complaining shoppers or the stupidity of covering up what amounts to a freaking family portrait.