MicroCenter signs come down; Kroger digs in for a fight

Ohioans For Concealed Carry is pleased to announce that MicroCenter has made a corporate decision to treat their Ohio customers exactly as they've been treating customers across the country for years.

Discriminatory signs banning CHL-holders in Ohio stores are coming down, effective today.

----- Original Message -----
From: Customer Relations
Sent: 5/7/2004 1:18:45 PM
Subject: New policy

Dear Mrs. *** ****

Thank you for your input regarding our "No Firearms" signs.

Effective this morning, May 7th, we have decided to remove those signs. We hope we can count on your continued patronage and support.

Thank again,

Albert Rogers
Micro Electronics, Inc.
Customer Relations
614-850-3036

---------
Click here to thank this company for weighing the facts, considering their extensive good experience with CHL-holders in other states, and making the safest, most-responsible decision.

Other multi-state corporations have joined Microcenter, and taken back down their signs after OFCC revealed that they do not discriminate against CHL-holders in other states. There is simply no logic reason for a company with years of experience with millions of concealed handgun license (CHL)-holders to decide that they would post signs in Ohio.

But that's not stopping Cincinnati-based Kroger Co....

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

One week ago, OFCC revealed that the Kroger Co. had begun hanging no-CCW signs in southwest Ohio stores in and around the company's hometown of Cincinnati.

The Kroger Company has years of experience with doing business in concealed carry states. It is likely that CHL-holders have shopped at Kroger-owned companies while armed on literally millions of occasions.

How else can Ohio residents interpret this move but that the Kroger Co. doesn't trust residents of its own state and own city to practice the same responsibility that has been exercised in their stores by residents of so many others?

We are unaware of any recent incidents in Ohio which would prompt this decision. In fact, quite the contrary - a recent shooting in a Canal Winchester Kroger (while concealed carry was still illegal) highlights folly of gun bans.

Initially, our contacts at Kroger indicated that the company was ''reexamining the issue'' after a massive grassroots uprising. But the following letter, which was bulk emailed to thousands of concerned customers yesterday, Kroger Co. appears to be claiming that there is a safety issue among their southwest Ohio customers that is not present in the rest of Ohio, or the nation:

Thank you for contacting The Kroger Co. regarding our recent decision to post signs in some of our Ohio stores asking our customers not to carry concealed weapons while in the store. While the Ohio Conceal and Carry Law does give individuals the right to carry a concealed weapon, it also gives businesses the right to specify whether or not they will allow customers to carry concealed weapons on their property.

We understand your stance as a shopper and respect your right to take it. However, our obligation to our valued customers is to not only provide them with quality products and services, but also a safe place to shop. We have noted your feedback and we value it. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

What is it about Kroger's "valued customers" in southwest Ohio that the company believes will effect the "safe shopping experience" they strive to create? Since Kroger believes it is "obligated" to create this safe place, will the company accept liability when defenseless citizens are hurt or killed in Kroger stores in the future. Will the store pay damages to the Canal Fulton store employee who was shot while trying to defend a woman from a violent criminal?

OFCC can now reveal that the problems in southwest Ohio result from the policy of ONE man: Mr. Bob Hodge, President of the Cincinnati Division of Kroger.

Hodge controls stores in parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Stores are not posted in the IN or KY stores under Hodge's control (although those states' laws certainly allow the company to do so, just as they so willingly point out Ohio's does), nor are they posted anywhere else in the country. This is true hypocritical behaviour. Mr. Hodge can be written at:

Mr. Bob Hodge
President, Cincinnati Division
150 Tri-County Parkway
Cincinnati OH 45246
513-782-3300

Hodge's boss is Company President David Dillon.

Related Story:
Signs come down at former hypocritical Business Banners