where lives time magazine?

during a recent trip through ohio and michigan i discovered a sad situation: u.s. residents barely stumple upon any political magazines in stores.

my suspicion arose after we had checked about three gas stations, all of them without any magazines. where would i find a news magazine for vacation reading?

hope appeared on the horizon in form of glen’s market, part of a regional supermarket chain, in gaylord, michigan. it’s big enough to have its own store brand, so news magazines might live there, too.

the magazine section in glen’s offered a great variety of special interest publications ranging body painting to country living. the cash register gave the usual impression: fashion & fitness, glamour & gossip plus weddings & cooking. no time, no newsweek, no u.s. news & world report, no national geographic.

finally, i found comfort in seeing the economist on the shelf, a rare species almost hidden among the clutter.

strange, i thought, in germany close to the cash register usually lie the political magazines (spiegel, focus, zeit) no matter if you enter a gas station or a supermarket. in addition, almost every decent sized town has a few newsstands of which i saw nil during our trip and come to think of it there is none in athens as far as i know.

the lack of public transportation in the usa might play a role, too. in germany, especially train stations are a paradise of newspapers and magazines and not only in german but also in foreign languages.

although i was content with my economist, my curiosity to find time magazine did not abate. in every town we went during vacation i visited the supermarkets i could find to check out the magazine situation. the few i found were out of date.

these towns are all on the upper peninsula of michigan; population ranges between a handful to 16,000.

seney:
*supermarket (the single one): will have magazines shortly though not sure which, just opened a month ago under new management according to cashier, no newspaper stands in the region, she says

grand marais:
*bay shore market: no political magazines
*superior store: no political magazines
*superior hotel: no political magazines (but playboy)

sault st. marie:
*soo supervalu foods: usual cash register display, no political magazines
*big k mart: usual cash register display, no political magazines
*walmart: 4 newsweeks, 2 u.s. news & world reports
*glen’s supermarket: a couple of newsweeks at the cash register

manistique:
*supervalu: first time magazine!!!, and newsweek, unfortunately both not recent issues

munising:
*glen’s supermarket: no political magazines on the first visit but lucky on the second: 1 time magazine, 1 newsweek (albeit not current issues) at the cash registers