Updated on 06/10/07

The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, Nashville Pride, Inc. and the Nashville HRC Steering Committee have joined the "Save Your Receipts(s)" campaign coalition. Several businesses have agreed to serve as drop off points for the receipt(s). They are listed at the end of this article.

The Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) and the Nashville GLBT Chamber of Commerce have launched a “Save Your Receipt(s)” campaign that directs people to not grocery shop at Kroger or Harris Teeter from June 8, to June 17.

The “Save Your Receipt(s)” campaign is in response to the two stores banning the gay newspaper Out & About Newspaper from its free distribution racks after the newspaper entered into a contract with DistribuTech, the company responsible for manging the free racks in the stores, for placement in 34 middle Tennessee Kroger and three Harris Teeter stores. The May issue was the only issue distributed before it was pulled from the stores by DistribuTech on May 31.

“Hundreds of our members have told us how frustrated they are with Kroger's response to your emails about pulling Out & About Newspaper from their shelves,” said Christopher Sanders, TEP president. “This is another easy step our members can take to show Kroger and Harris Teeter how much economic power our community has.”

Sanders said the two organizations are asking fair-minded people across the nation to save all their grocery receipts from any grocery store except those owned by The Kroger Company and Harris Teeter from June 8,  to June 17 and send them in to be tallied.

“Locally there are lots of grocery shopping options including PlumGood Foods, Publix, Wal-Mart, Food Lion, Aldi and neighborhood markets,” Sanders said.

Leaders of both groups stopped short of calling the action a boycott.

“This is not a boycott per se,” said John Wade, president of the Nashville GLBT Chamber of Commerce. “It's more of a measurement exercise so that we build the business case for inclusion and keep the pressure on.”

How to respond with your grocery receipts:

1.  Fax them to (615) 262-3167.  (Tape the receipt to a piece of standard paper first and then fax.)
2.  Scan them into a PDF file and email them to chris@tnequalityproject.com
3.  Mail them before June 12, to TEP at P.O. Box 330895, Nashville, TN 37203
3.  Drop the receipts off at one of these participating locations:

- First Unitarian Universalist Church at 1808 Woodmont Blvd in Nashville. Call (615) 383-5760 for office hours.

- OutLoud! Bookstore at 1703 Church Street in Nashville, Sun-Thu from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Fri-Sat 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

- Tribe at 1517 Church Street in Nashville

- Lucky's Garage at 207 14th Ave. North in Nashville (behind Hollywood Hustler) - Tue., Wed. & Thus. 5 p.m. – 2 a.m.; Fri. 5 p.m. – 3 a.m.; Sat. 8 p.m. – 3 a.m.; Sun. 5 p.m. – 1 a.m.

- Blue Gene's at 1715 Church Street in Nashville

- Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition. P.O. Box 92335, Nashville, TN 37209, www.ttgpac.com, ttgpac@aol.com (615) 293-6199
 
- Nashville Pride, Inc.

- Nashville HRC Steering Committee

Sanders said more locations would be added as the campaign progressed.

“If your organization would like to join OutLoud! and First Unitarian Universalist in helping with this campaign, contact us and we'll include you,” he said. “It would involve your organization accepting some type of container for the receipts and telling us what days and hours people could drop off their receipts and promoting it to your members.”