DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709070137

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   48 lines

TABLOIDS REMOVED FROM SHELVES AT SOME STORES

There will be one less place today to find sensational headlines shouting about UFO abductions, earthquakes spawned by demons, secret health cures - or whispers of royal transgressions.

One supermarket is booting the tabloids, at least for a week.

``While many of our customers this weekend will mourn the passing of Princess Diana, we feel that tabloids of any kind in the stores would not be appropriate,'' said Susan Pierter, a spokeswoman for Hannaford Bros.

The Maine-based chain operates 148 supermarkets along the Eastern Seaboard, including several in Hampton Roads.

Pierter said the ``company-wide ban'' is aimed at the National Enquirer, the Globe, the Star, the National Examiner and Weekly World News.

``I'm glad to hear it. I wish all the stores would do that,'' said Becky Montgomery, 31, of Virginia Beach as she left a Food Lion supermarket Saturday night. ``Maybe they should let customers vote on throwing them out of all the stores for good.''

While some of the tabloids were on the shelves inside the Food Lion, the National Enquirer was missing. Food Lion was among several stores that pulled the Sept. 9 issue featuring a front-page photo of Diana and the headline: ``Di Goes Sex-Mad.'' It was published before the death of the Princess of Wales.

The Globe was on sale at many stores, however, with a page 2 and 3 photo spread of Diana in a bathing suit on a beach with boyfriend Dodi Fayed. The headline: ``To Di For! A new swimsuit every day so lover Dodi won't stray.''

But the tabloid was nowhere to be found at the Salem Crossing Hannaford in the 2000 block of Lynnhaven Parkway in Virginia Beach. The store's manager said employees cleared the racks of all tabloids after receiving orders from the company headquarters.

``I won't miss them,'' said Angela Kelley, 27, of Virginia Beach.

``I used to buy one every so often. No one in particular, whichever one had the strangest titles (headlines) and stories,'' she said. ``But it was for fun. I never really believed anything they said. But, now, after what they did to Di, I don't want anything to do with them.''

The tabloids, seldom at a loss for words in print, had little to say Saturday.

A woman answering calls at the Sun's offices in Boca Raton, Fla., hung up when asked by a reporter for a comment on Hannaford's ban.

The man answering the phones at the National Enquirer in Lantana, Fla., said the publication would have no comment before Monday, if then. A Globe staffer at its Boca Raton offices declined comment. There was no answer at the Weekly World News offices, also in Lantana.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu