Photo courtesy of Jim Garber
In a recent interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Kroger Senior Vice President and CFO Michael Schlotman was asked about the company’s stance on open carry within the chain’s stores, because it has been a key target of a petition and video campaign by Michael Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Schlotman’s response was direct as the company continued to stand fast on open carry in its stores:
“If the local gun laws are to allow open carry, we’ll certainly allow customers to do that based on what the local laws are. We don’t believe it’s up to us to legislate what the local gun control laws should be. It’s up to the local legislators to decide to do that,” he told CNBC. “So we follow local laws, we ask our customers to be respectful to the other people they are shopping with. And we really haven’t had any issues inside of our stores as a result of that.”
Kroger, the largest food chain in the US, stated that its policy will continue to follow local and state laws, adding in a statement that “We know that our customers are passionate on both sides of this issue, and we trust them to be responsible in our stores.”
