Stop & Shop, Shaw's Supermarkets resume distribution of Bay Windows

[Ian David]

For Immediate Release

Stop & Shop, Shaw's Supermarkets resume distribution of Bay Windows
Published: Wednesday, April 27, 2005

http://www.baywindows.com/news/2005/04/27/News/Stop-Shop.Shaws.Supermarkets.Resume.Distribution.Of.Bay.Windows-941409.shtml&mkey=1588314


As many of our readers know, Bay Windows was the target of a smear campaign, orchestrated by the anti-gay Article 8 Alliance (www.article8.org), to pressure Stop & Shop and Shaw's supermarkets into banning our newspapers.

Stop & Shop halted distribution of the paper in its stores the week of March 31 due to complaints about the paper's personals and told us that distribution would resume if the personals were removed from copies available at Stop & Shop. We were already in the process of making our personals available only on BayWindows.com and expedited the move to get the newspaper back into Stop & Shop.

Officials from Shaw's supermarket told us that the paper wasn't available at Shaw's stores due to a third-party vendor's miscommunication about Bay Windows's status as a customer.

As of this week, however, you can once again find us at select Stop & Shop and Shaw's supermarket locations. Visit www.baywindows.com for a complete list. We are thrilled to continue our relationship with both supermarkets, which enables us to make Bay Windows more available to our suburban readers.

We would like to thank the many readers who contacted the supermarkets in support of Bay Windows. We would also like to ask you to take a moment to contact Stop & Shop and Shaw's and thank them for continuing distribution of New England's largest newspaper serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. You can contact the Stop & Shop Supermarket Company by writing to Marc Smith, CEO, 1385 Hancock Street, Quincy MA 02169.

Or you can visit www.stopandshop.com and click on the "contact us" button at the top of the page to send Stop & Shop an e-mail. You can also thank your local store manager. Shaw's Supermarket can be reached by writing to Nicola DeFelice, President, Box 600, East Bridgewater, MA 02333. Or you can visit www.shaws.com and click on the "contact us" button at the top of the page and send Shaw's an e-mail. You can also take a moment while shopping to thank your local store manager.


- Jeff Coakley and Sue O'Connell, co-publishers


Related threads:

Fundies pissed: Gay newspaper may return to supermarkets
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x10449

Anti-Gay Bigots rejoice: Supermarkets remove gay newspaper from stores
Topic started by IanDB1 on Apr-07-05 04:57 PM (5 replies)
Last modified by booley on Apr-08-05 03:54 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=221&topic_id=9891



My letter to Shaw's:

Thank you for agreeing to again carry Bay Windows.

However, I will still continue to boycott Shaw's and other Albertson's stores due to your gross support of the Republican party.

BuyBlue.org's Position:

Albertson's currently has a 25% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. Albertson's key executives contributed very little to politicians personally. Albertson's does have a political action committee responsible for the bulk of their donations - $106,459 (26.00% Dem, 74.00% Rep)

http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=164

Instead, I will continue to go well out of my way to patronize Costco (98% Democrat) and Stop & Shop.

While Stop & Shop does donate to Republicans, it is merely pocket change compared to what Albertson's does.


http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=Tobin%2C+Robert&txtState=CT&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&Order=N


http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=GRIZE&txtState=CT&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&Order=N

So, thank you for doing the right thing and carrying Bay Windows again.

[rox63]

1. I'll have to start shopping there more often

Even though I don't live all that close to Boston (I'm about 30 miles NW of the city), there are Shaw's and Stop & Shop supermarkets nearby. So I'll have to start doing more of my grocery shopping with them, as a little thank-you.

[Ian David]

2. I wouldn't use Shaw's. They're huge Republican donors

ChooseTheBlue.org
Grocery Stores
http://www.choosetheblue.com/mainFrame.php?backlevel=002..001Choose%20The%20Blue.002Groceries&prodcat=Grocery+Stores

BuyBlue.org
Grocery Stores:
http://www.buyblue.org/categories.php?parent_id=10


BuyBlue.org's Rating: Light Red - 25 %

Albertson's
Acme Markets
Bristol Farms
Jewel-Osco
Shaw's Supermarkets

BuyBlue.org's Position:

Albertson's currently has a 25% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. Albertson's key executives contributed very little to politicians personally. Albertson's does have a political action committee responsible for the bulk of their donations - $106,459 (26.00% Dem, 74.00% Rep)

Total Spent: $117,959.00

25.29% to Democratic Party candidates
74.71% to Republican Party candidates
0% to Other candidates

More:
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=164


Stop & Shop

Rating: Dark Red - 13 %
BuyBlue.org's Position:

Ahold currently has a 13% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. This rating is based on several contributions by the CEO of American Operations to a Food Industry PAC which donated 13% of their funds to Democrats and 87% to Republicans. Ahold does not have a political action committee.

Ahold presents one of those situations where the political contributions don't really tell the whole story. When you look at their competitors, even if Ahold has a lower rating, you'll see that they remained relatively apolitical in comparison.

Total Spent: $7,500.00

13% to Democratic Party candidates
87% to Republican Party candidates
0% to Other candidates

More:
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=82

I would rather patronize a company that gave $7,500 to Republicans (Stop & Shop) than one that gave $118,000 to Republicans (Shaw's).


You are much, MUCH better off with COSTCO!

COSTCO Rating: Dark Blue - 99 %
BuyBlue.org's Position:

Costco Wholesale currently has a 99% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. Costco executives contributed heavily to Democratic candidates for Congress and some in high-profile Senate races including Barack Obama and Tom Daschle, and many Democratic candidates for President.

Furthermore, according to the Seattle Weekly (December 15-21) Costco also treats their employees extremely well. "Costco's average U.S. hourly wage of approximately $16 an hour is widely considered to be the best in the retail business. And its approach to health care, as noted in a report at the time by the financial research and investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., "has been to provide employees with the best plan at the least expense to the employee."

Costco is leading the way by showing that you can make progressive values profitable in business.

More:
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=17

[seemunkee]

3. Stop & Shop is ruining my grocery store

Here in the DC area Giant was a decent chain. Locally owned and managed. Since the owner died several years ago it was bought by Ahold and is now managed by S&S from Boston. They hardly have any checkers anymore and the stocking is slipshod.

[TaleWgnDg]

4. That puke Brian Camenker (Article 8 Alliance) . . .

.
That puke Brian Camenker (Article 8 Alliance) . . . will try and does try anything at all to spread his hate & discontent . . .

Camenker's Article 8 Alliance pops up here at the statehouse (see, #2 Representative Mark J. Carron):





Know who is working AGAINST same-sex marriage in the halls of our statehouse and elsewhere:

L to R, conferring inside the MA Statehouse during the 2004 Massachusetts Constitutional Convention whether to amend the MA state constitution against same-sex marriage and removing other benefits and privileges from homosexuals in Massachusetts:

(1) MA Representative Philip Travis (.pdf format, Adobe Reader necessary), Democrat, of Rehoboth, MA, (religious affiliation: "Christian") chief sponsor of the 2004 anti-gay MA amendment, and who has opposed same-sex marriage as a party to many MA and federal lawsuits, and who has co-sponsored a bill to remove the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justices who authored (or concurred in) the Goodridge opinion allowing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts;

(2) MA Representative Mark J. Carron, Democrat, of Southbridge, MA, (a Roman Catholic and Third Degree, Knights of Columbus) who votes anti-gay (anything), co-sponsor of Travis' 2004 anti-gay MA amendment, and who has worked with Brian Camenker of Article 8 Alliance to remove the MA Supreme Judicial Court justices who authored (or concurred in) the Goodridge opinion allowing same-sex marriage in MA, and who has been a party (.pdf format, Adobe Reader necessary) to litigation AGAINST same-sex marriage in both state and federal courts including the U.S. Supreme Court;

(3) Attorney Daniel Avila who is a paid lobbyist (client #950462) at the statehouse and elsewhere for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, Inc., (which is a Massachusetts corporation of the Roman Catholic Church headed by the Bishops of the Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, Worcester, and Archdiocese of Boston/Archbishop of Boston, Most Rev. Seán Patrick O'Malley, OFM Cap). As such, Attorney Avila lobbies for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, Inc. (Massachusetts corporation ID #666002658) regarding such matters as anti-gay issues, anti-abortion issues, anti-in vitro fertilization issues, anti-right-to-die-with-dignity (Terri Schiavo-like) issues, anti-stem cell research issues, anti-contraception (including no condoms for AIDS/HIV) issues, abstinence-only sex education in public schools, and propagation of other Roman Catholic Church related religious issues in Massachusetts; and

(4) Reverend Ron Crews, Republican, of Ashland, MA, a fundamentalist preacher, a carpet-bagger from Georgia who is a paid lobbyist (#1367) for the "Massachusetts Family Institute, Inc." (MA corporate ID #043113783) a hate-mongering and gay-bashing religion-into-law fundamentalist organization and as former president of "Massachusetts Family Institute, Inc." filed an amicus brief against same-sex marriage and against same-sex civil unions with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the Goodridge case, who as a Georgia state representative opposed abortion, sought to create "covenant marriages," to have Creationism taught in Georgia public schools and abstinence-only "sex education" taught in Georgia public schools and a statutory redefinition of marriage as only for one man and one woman, and who recently ran unsuccessfully against incumbent U.S. Representative James McGovern, Democrat, Worcester.

For perusing summarized anti-same-sex marriage amici briefs, e.g., Massachusetts Catholic Conference, Inc., Massachusetts Family Institute, Inc., and others, filed in Goodridge, go to: http://www.mlgba.org/briefs/AmicusIssue.PDF (.pdf format, Adobe Reader necessary).

See also: http://www.boston.com/news/specials/gay_marriage/articles/2004/03/29/how_lawmakers_cast_their_final_vote_on_the_gay_marriage_amendment/ (BosGlobe, 3/29/04, How Lawmakers Cast Their Final Vote on the Gay Marriage Amendment, Massachusetts Constitutional Convention 2004) (as last visited Monday, April 25, 2005).