The March cover of Milwaukee Magazine features two brides.

I get that Sendik's Fine Foods wants to keep its customers happy and sell lots of groceries, but did it really need to block a tame Milwaukee Magazine cover showing two brides getting married?

One shopper thinks so. And it took just that one complaint to cause the Brookfield store owners to put a black board over the magazine in racks near its checkout lanes. Only part of the magazine name was left showing.

Call it censorship or call it customer service, but the word got out in the news and on social media this week and pretty soon the store's phones and email lit up. And it was not people wanting to know if corned beef brisket is on sale.

"It exploded," said store manager Rick. "I prefer not to give you my last name because I don't want all that hate mail coming to me."

So much for keeping people happy. Dozens of people criticized the store for covering the magazine. Many others praised Sendik's, but they likely have switched to upset mode by now because the store has removed all the shields to reveal the two models in wedding dresses.

They're just standing there, face-to-face, lovingly, at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The headline reads: "For love & money: Same-sex marriage is big business and Wisconsin is losing out on millions."

God bless the Sendik's customer who doesn't want to look at two brides, but most of us in Wisconsin favor gay marriage. A Marquette University Law School poll last year found 53% in favor of allowing same-sex marriage, 24% preferring civil unions and only 19% opposed to any legal recognition of same-sex unions.

So I think we can handle one magazine cover dealing tastefully with the topic. If it's not your thing, look away.

As far as I know, there's no law that Sendik's, located at Capitol Drive and Brookfield Road, has to carry Milwaukee Magazine at all. But if they do, they should resist the urge to shroud it in shame to please a vocal minority. As a general rule, forbidding something just makes people want it more anyway.

In TV news interviews I've seen, Milwaukee Magazine staff look like they're enjoying this free advertising, and I realize I'm giving them more here today. If they're smart, editors will be putting a large marijuana leaf on next month's cover.

Top editor Kurt Chandler said the magazine first learned what was happening at Sendik's via Twitter. So the writer of the cover article, Abby Callard, went to have a look for herself. She snapped a photo of the blacked-out cover and it was posted on the magazine's website.

The store told the magazine that several customers complained, though manager Rick told me it was just one. Chandler said he, too, has received phone calls for and against the cover.

"The story itself is largely a business story," Chandler said. "Abby Callard steered away from morality and politics, and presented a fact-based article on the potential economic benefits of same-sex marriage in states where it's legal. The article adds another facet to an important national debate."

He said a lot of discussion went into the cover. Should they feature two men or two women? Should they have them holding hands, embracing, kissing?

"This cover is not shocking. It is not immoral," Chandler said. "As one reader — a man — said to me in an email: 'Question: What can be more beautiful than a bride on her wedding day? Answer: Two brides on their wedding day.'"

Rick at Sendik's said the store is re-evaluating its longtime policy of covering up certain magazines, including sex-soaked Cosmopolitan, Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions and others as people complain.

"You're never going to please everybody," he said.

True, and it's often best not to try.

Call Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or email at jstingl@journalsentinel.com