{"id":3708,"date":"2025-10-15T01:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/3708\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T01:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:14:09","slug":"florida-grocery-chain-publix-allowing-customers-to-openly-carry-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/3708\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida grocery chain Publix allowing customers to openly carry guns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida\u2019s largest grocery store chain has announced it now allows shoppers to openly carry guns at its locations.<\/p>\n

Publix will follow the state\u2019s procedures with its open-carry policy, which went into effect on Sept. 25.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 10, a District Court of Appeal panel overturned a 1987 law that made it a misdemeanour to visibly display guns, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said. But Uthmeier said the ruling permits private business owners to \u201ccompel individuals carrying firearms to leave their premises.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Publix spokesperson told the South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/a> that the retail chain \u201cfollows all federal, state and local laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any instance where a customer creates a threatening, erratic or dangerous shopping experience \u2014 whether they are openly carrying a firearm or not \u2014 we will engage local law enforcement to protect our customers and associates,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Publix boasts more than 900 stores in the state and all confirmed they have opted to allow it, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n

Another grocery chain, Winn-Dixie, said in a statement to the Sun Sentinel that it will continue to prohibit open carry in its Florida stores despite the recent ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority is creating a safe and welcoming shopping experience for all customers and associates,\u201d parent company Southeastern Grocers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a private business, our policy remains unchanged: We do not permit open carry of firearms inside our stores. We respectfully ask customers to secure firearms safely before entering and we appreciate the continued co-operation that helps us maintain an environment where everyone feels comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmart, which owns Sam\u2019s Club, said in a statement that they have asked customers to refrain bringing firearms into their stores \u2014 but wouldn\u2019t stop anyone openly carrying one from entry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur statement said we ask customers to refrain from bringing firearms into our stores; we did not say we were prohibiting them,\u201d Walmart said.<\/p>\n

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Another grocery chain, Aldi, had a similar statement to Walmart: \u201cWe are asking that our customers refrain from openly displaying firearms in any of our stores, except for authorized law enforcement personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, they do authorize concealed carrying, the Florida Times-Union<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Trader Joe\u2019s officials said in 2019 that they follow local laws, but noted their stores \u201cdo not welcome weapons of any kind in our stores and never have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2014, Target has requested that guests \u201cnot bring firearms\u201d into its stores \u2014 \u201ceven in communities where it is permitted by law,\u201d\u00a0according to the Times-Union.<\/p>\n

Costco, meanwhile, has a no-gun policy at its warehouses \u2014 whether it\u2019s open and\/or concealed carry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s largest grocery store chain has announced it now allows shoppers to openly carry guns at its locations.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,3751,4260,4259,4262,2231,1018,4261],"class_list":{"0":"post-3708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-grocery-store","12":"tag-james-uthmeier","13":"tag-openly-carrying-a-firearm","14":"tag-private-business","15":"tag-publix","16":"tag-south-florida-sun-sentinel","17":"tag-southeastern-grocers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708","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=3708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}