Some El Pasoans Upset Over Racy Magazine Covers At Local Grocery Stores

An ABC-7 received an email from a viewer who said they are concerned about what their kids are seeing while they are in line at the grocery store.

“I am tired of having to turn magazines around, especially in Wal-Mart where the wait time for checkout is ridiculously long, so that my four girls are not exposed to the smut on these magazine covers,” said ABC-7 viewer George.

ABC-7’s Jennifer Myers traveled to a local Wal-Mart store to see if there were any magazines with offensive or sensitive materials.

Cosmo’s cover contained headlines, including “100 Best Sex Tips Of The Year” as well as “Sh*t My Guy Says.”

Another cover of Glamour magazine had “Sex & Love: ‘Tis the Season for Hookups, Proposals and… Skype Sex?!”

For a slideshow of the other questionable covers that were found in the checkout line, click here.

ABC-7 asked a few local parents and El Pasoans if they thought the cover was offensive.

“It’s not offensive, but it’s not nice to see those at the cashiers because the children can see and can read all that stuff. So that’s what I don’t like about that,” said concerned parent Olga Torres.

Other El Pasoans said they didn’t want the content to be removed, but that it shouldn’t be kept where children can see.

“They are magazines made for older people and that’s how it should be kept, not at eye level where little kids can see them at cashier lines,” said Angie Alvarado.

I contacted Wal-Mart headquarters directly about the viewers concern about the content in their stores.

This is the statement they sent to our newsroom:

“In an effort to strike a balance for our customers who want to purchase this magazine and our customers who may be uncomfortable with this issue, we have asked our associates to monitor the placement of magazines at registers to ensure these types of magazines are covered behind the shields,” said Walmart spokeswoman Kayla Whaling.

Whaling also said the magazines we found were already supposed to be behind cover shields that are built into the magazine rack.

None of the racks we saw contained these shields.

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