No Guns Sign - for a little while anyway.
Apr. 2nd, 2012 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crazychicknladyToday I discovered a new sign on the door of our local (and my absolute favorite) grocery chain.
"No firearms allowed."
WTF!?
After explaining to a confused looking clerk (I didn't wait around to find a manager, but if the sign stays I'll write a letter explaining why they lost a loyal customer) why I wouldn't be shopping there after all, I then went several more miles up the road to a different grocery chain.
I called the corporate customer service number when I got home (I actually called the public relations number first, since I figured this would end up a public relations nightmare for this chain if the no firearms sign reflected a new corporate policy). The fellow I talked with is unsure about the status of the sign, had actually gotten another call about it recently, and is looking into it for me.
I actually came away from the call with the customer service representative more upset with his attitude about firearms than I had been by the presence of the sign on the door. He seemed to think it was perfectly reasonable for a store to have a "No Open Carry of Firearms." sign (something he said the local chain has always had, but I'd never seen one or I wouldn't have been a loyal customer all these years). His reasoning was that if a customer was scared by seeing a gun on another customer, then to make that customer comfortable it would be reasonable to bar everyone from carrying openly. He said it was the same as if a customer were uncomfortable with any behavior of another customer, though I expect that if they had customers with irrational fears of any other object, they wouldn't make a policy banning it.
ETA: Before I finished preparing this post the customer service fellow got back to me that the sign should be down now. Huh, that was fast. I still wonder why it made it up in the first place, but I missed the call (I was busy with the new horse at the time and didn't hear the phone) and don't want to call him back just to ask. The damage may already be done anyway. I had a craptastic day because of that sign and don't feel as warmly towards that local chain as I did this morning. I'll still shop there sometimes if the sign is really gone, but I had a really good trip to the other grocery chain and may shop there more often, even if they are farther away; they had really nice green onions and grapes.
"No firearms allowed."
WTF!?
After explaining to a confused looking clerk (I didn't wait around to find a manager, but if the sign stays I'll write a letter explaining why they lost a loyal customer) why I wouldn't be shopping there after all, I then went several more miles up the road to a different grocery chain.
I called the corporate customer service number when I got home (I actually called the public relations number first, since I figured this would end up a public relations nightmare for this chain if the no firearms sign reflected a new corporate policy). The fellow I talked with is unsure about the status of the sign, had actually gotten another call about it recently, and is looking into it for me.
I actually came away from the call with the customer service representative more upset with his attitude about firearms than I had been by the presence of the sign on the door. He seemed to think it was perfectly reasonable for a store to have a "No Open Carry of Firearms." sign (something he said the local chain has always had, but I'd never seen one or I wouldn't have been a loyal customer all these years). His reasoning was that if a customer was scared by seeing a gun on another customer, then to make that customer comfortable it would be reasonable to bar everyone from carrying openly. He said it was the same as if a customer were uncomfortable with any behavior of another customer, though I expect that if they had customers with irrational fears of any other object, they wouldn't make a policy banning it.
ETA: Before I finished preparing this post the customer service fellow got back to me that the sign should be down now. Huh, that was fast. I still wonder why it made it up in the first place, but I missed the call (I was busy with the new horse at the time and didn't hear the phone) and don't want to call him back just to ask. The damage may already be done anyway. I had a craptastic day because of that sign and don't feel as warmly towards that local chain as I did this morning. I'll still shop there sometimes if the sign is really gone, but I had a really good trip to the other grocery chain and may shop there more often, even if they are farther away; they had really nice green onions and grapes.
