{"id":260602,"date":"2026-05-06T13:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/260602\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:32:11","slug":"did-publix-quietly-reverse-its-open-carry-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/260602\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Publix quietly reverse its open-carry policy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/Publix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Publix<\/a>, the beloved Florida-native grocery chain, may have reversed its policy on open carry in its stores. <\/p>\n<p>Just months after allowing customers to openly carry firearms, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/viewpoints\/2026\/05\/05\/publix-open-carry-policy-florida-guns-firearms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reports <\/a>are swirling on Wednesday that this policy has quietly been retracted.<\/p>\n<p>CBS12 News attempted to confirm these changes by reaching out to Publix\u2019s customer service, but was told we would get a response in 24 to 28 business hours. CBS12 News also reached out to Lindsey Willis, Central and South Florida Media Relations Manager, but did not get a response.<\/p>\n<p>However, an online interaction with Publix&#8217;s chatbot has raised eyebrows. <\/p>\n<p>When asked about open carry rules, the chatbot stated, \u201cPublix kindly asks that only law enforcement openly carry firearms in our stores.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"When asked about open carry rules, the Publix chatbot stated, \u201cPublix kindly asks that only law enforcement openly carry firearms in our stores.\u201d (WPEC)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/051729f3-72ec-4c94-8312-2133f184fab2-CBS12teasertemplate89.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>When asked about open carry rules, the Publix chatbot stated, \u201cPublix kindly asks that only law enforcement openly carry firearms in our stores.\u201d (WPEC)<\/p>\n<p>This suggests a significant shift in the company\u2019s approach to firearm policies.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/jupiter-advances-plan-to-form-its-own-fire-rescue-department-separating-from-county-florida-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jupiter advances plan to form its own fire rescue department, separating from county<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>Originally, CBS12 News reported that, back in <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/with-florida-now-allowing-open-carry-publix-will-too-says-some-workers-fort-lauderdale-hollywood-davie-miramar-boca-raton-delray-beach-coral-gables-and-homestead-south-florida-news-october-8-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">September<\/a>, Publix had embraced Florida&#8217;s new law permitting open carry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Publix, the beloved Florida-native grocery chain, may have reversed its policy on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-260602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}