UDF bans CHL - Tri-state customers told to stay out when armed

This week, we began receiving reports of new "no-guns" signs being posted in Cincinnati-area United Dairy Farmers convenience stores.

As it was the first block-posting by a business chain in close to a year (there are nearly 200 UDF stores in the Tri-state area), and as UDF is an Ohio-based business which has been doing business in other CCW states for years with no signs, Business Education Coordinator Joe Eaton was quick to investigate. His report follows:

I contacted UDF on March 30, and spoke to Jennifer in Consumer Relations at 800-833-9911. Jennifer clarified that all UDF locations will be posted in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. She claimed this decision was made in May of 2004 but signs were not printed or available until now.

Next I contacted UDF's Director of Security, John Osborne. Mr. Osborne discussed with me the decision to post was made by the management team and had his full support. Mr. Osborne's main concern was that the training requirements for Ohio CHL was not satisfactory. I found this interesting, considering that Indiana has had NO training requirement whatsoever for 80 years, and UDF has been doing business there without "no-guns" signs for nearly twenty of those incident-free years.

In my estimation, Osborne seemed more concerned about a person using a .22 for the training and then buying a .40 to carry than he was with criminals victimizing defenseless customers. He also is under the (false) impression that 'more signs are going up everywhere'. He also argued that just because they are posting signs advertising that patrons are disarmed, that criminals can't assume a off-duty officer is not in the store. Even when informed of the Ohio Attorney General's statement on off-duty officers being required to follow law as a normal citizen has too, he was unmoved.

I also questioned why after nine years of doing business with CHL-holders in Kentucky and nearly twenty years in Indiana without incident, they suddenly felt the need to post discriminatory signs after their home-state customers regained their right to carry. John could not provide any explanation for this, or for why they company refuses to reconsider a knee-jerk decision made a year ago, but that deserves to be reexamined after a year of doing business with CHL-holders in Ohio. He could only express baseless fears of people being heroes in the stores.

Mr. Osborne stated that the decision has been made and there is no indication that the management will consider changing and he will continue to recommend the signs stay in place. He considers CHL-holders to be a small minority of customers and in his mind, apparently, this minority is dispensable.

I am going to follow up with him with additional information because even though he claimed to be well informed on CCW, the only thing he was 100% correct on was that Ohio law allows them to post.

Many Cincinnati-area residents will recall the nation-wide uproar that occurred last year when Ohio-based Kroger stores began posting "no-guns" signs, despite not having such discriminatory and unsafe signs posted in the many other states they do business. After intense grassroots action, the Kroger signs came down.

Contact information for Ohio-based United Dairy Farmers is as follows:

United Dairy Farmers
Robert Lindner Jr., President
3955 Montgomery Rd.
Cincinnati,Ohio 45212
www.udfinc.com

Phone: 1-800-833-9911
Email: [email protected]