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Publix: Only Officers Should Openly Carry Guns In Its Stores

AP Photo/Scott Iskowitz, File Photo

If you're carrying a gun, the supermarket chain Publix doesn't want to see it. 

Publix is joining a growing number of retailers in asking customers not to openly carry firearms in its stores, even if state laws allow it.

The company announced the move by email in a one-sentence statement on Wednesday, saying, "Publix respectfully requests that only law enforcement officials openly carry firearms in our stores."

The chain, based in Lakeland, Florida, currently has several stores in the Triad, and is planning to open a distribution center in Guilford County.

Survivors of last year's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have criticized the company for donating to a Florida gubernatorial candidate aligned with the National Rifle Association.

Publix's new gun policy comes a week after the competing Kroger grocery chain joined Walmart, Target, and other companies in asking customers not to openly carry weapons in their stores.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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