“Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery chain, said it will stop selling guns and ammunition to customers who are younger than 21 years old,” money.cnn.com reports. “It’s the third major retailer in two days to impose new age restrictions on sales.” In making the move, the company announced . . .
“In response to the tragic events in Parkland and elsewhere, we’ve taken a hard look at our policies and procedures for firearm sales,” Kroger said in a statement. “Recent events demonstrate the need for additional action on the part of responsible gun retailers.”
The company said that it stopped selling “assault-style rifles” at its Oregon, Washington and Idaho stores several years ago, and that it will no longer accept any special orders for those weapons at its stores in Alaska.
Kroger said it is also in the process of scaling back gun departments at some stores “due to softer demand and changing customer preferences.”
I bet local gun store owners are increasingly happy these days . . .
kroger sells guns?
This refers to Fred Meyer stores owned by Kroger. They are located in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. They sell mostly hunting rifles, shotguns and Ruger 10/22 and Mini-14s. Some sell handguns and Magazines. They don’t sell AR-15s or rifle magazines holding above 10 rounds. Until recently they sold 10/22 mags Up to 25 rounds. They sell pistol magazines that are standard capacity for Glocks such as 17 rounds but nothing extending past the grip. Many of these stores are in rural areas.
ah
Milk
Bread
Lunchmeat
Cereal
Ground beef
Taco seasoning
Box of .357 Critical Defense
Spinach
Caesar salad dressing
Gun cleaning patches
Wolf brand chili…
🤠
My shopping list:
Cantaloupe
Slim-Jim beef jerky
Disposable Enema
Monster truck madness magazine
Box of X-tra lube condoms
Turbo-Lax laxative
sack of marbles
Wife: “I don’t know what you have planned for tonight, but count me out”.
Wow great post
Wolf Brand Chili?
Canine protein would make it more palatable…
Guns gotta eat!
No Kroger’s stores where I reside,however if I’m traveling and see a Kroger’s store I’ll just keep on going.
TTAG needs to keep an easily accessible centralized boycott list somewhere on this site. It’s exhausting trying to keep up with who gun folks are supposed to boycott. I suspect we would have a hard time functioning if we saw the entire list.
I’m sure there are Kroger’s around you, they own a massive percent of the grocery space under a bunch of different brands.
Copy pasta from Walmart Article
Wellp.. thanks KROGER.. I’ll shop elsewhere.. being a gun owner and ardent supporter of The Constitution is not suppose to be something dirty, something looked down upon by those socially “superior”, it’s not some deviant behavior.
These companies capitulating to “public pressure” still enjoy protections provided by The Constitution, they are free to operate in the GREATEST country the world has ever known. These companies will not show any respect to the founding ideals that props their bottom lines up? Yeah, I’ll get what I need from other businesses.
They should stop selling food to Millennials too.
Never heard of fred meyers. Haven’t missed anything.
It’s a northwest thing. They’re a big deal around here, this is pretty sad.
I haven’t seen firearms at my local Fred Meyer stores for at least 25 years.
None in ours in maybe 10 years. Guns or ammo.
My guess this is why they made the decision. Getting points for making a change that barely effects them.
I bet Alaska would be the hardest hit. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was still in all their stores up there.
I’ve never heard of Fred Meyer before and the only Kroger I’ve ever seen was a little convenience store in a ghetto I was driving through.
Kroger is the chain that told Moms demand Action to eff off when they wanted no guns signs posted on all of their stores. As I recall at one of their stores they even had security remove a mom that had a printed list of petitioners. Given the AR glut right now, discontinuing AR sales is not a painful act. Companies that want to get out of the AR business is fine, leaves the market open for smaller businesses. I have a bigger issue with non gun businesses taking a negative position with regard to the NRA and NRA members
Their statement about allowing customers to carry inside their stores wasn’t really pro-2A. They didn’t want their employees to confront someone who is armed, which isn’t the same thing.
I like Kroger, and I really like their Fred Meyer’s variant. I’ll still shop there, they did tell Mom’s Demand Action to take a hike a few years ago. I remember buying knives and ammo at wal-mart when I was 12, I guess those days are gone. I will have to buy ammo for my kids now, sad.
Kroger operates more than 2,500 stores under more than two dozen different banners. In addition to Kroger Stores, its groceries include Cala Foods, City Markets, Copps, Dillons, FoodsCo, Fred Meyer Stores, Fry’s, King Soopers, Mariano’s Fresh Market, Metro Market, Pick ‘n Save, Quality Food Centers (a.k.a. QFC), Ralphs, Food 4 Less, and Smith’s Food and Drug. Also owns Barclay, Fox’s, Fred Meyer, and Littman jewelers, and Kwik Shop, Loaf ‘N Jug, and Quik Stop convenience stores.
I believe they own Turkey Hill stores too.
For now, all of the convenience stores are for sale.
Kroger sold off all of their gas stations to a British company. $2.3B. If I remember correctly.
I work for King Soopers, it’s been a big thing recently. They’re also about to roll out a massive “do your own scanning shopping” without any people to bother you, in May.
Being the resident “gun guy” at my store, I’ve been constantly hurtled questions about guns lately. A lot of people are getting educated, but a lot of the gun owners here don’t even know about things like AR’s being semi auto.
I still want to know how this is legal. How can a retailer pick and choose which otherwise lawful products to sell to which otherwise lawful purchasers, on the basis of age?
Can Kroger decide to stop selling alcohol to customers under age 25? Can Walmart decide to stop selling televisions to customers under age 30?
(Note: in principle, I believe in the right of a proprietor to refuse service to any customer, for any reason. But we have forced proprietors to operate under the “right of public accommodation.”)
2 wrongs don’t make a right. Would you guys cut it out with the gay wedding cake theorem? It never ceases to amaze me how worked up Farago can make some of you guys by doing a simple Internet search every morning and coming up with some unsuspecting doofus (often in Academia) spouting off something that doesn’t agree with the Second Amendment Extremist world view. Fred Meyer raises about the same level of concern with me as these Academics doofuses: zero.
The “right of public accommodation” originates with the CRA of 1964 – long before the brouhaha over a gay wedding cake.
And I have no problem whatsoever hoisting the left upon their own, unintended-consequences petards, by applying the right of equal protection under the law.
Take your pearl clutching elsewhere. That dog doesn’t hunt with me.
You frequently argue what in the real world are only semantics. You live inside a very strict world of textbook rules with only a “FO” to anyone that dares argue it just doesn’t matter.
I have found the left cares about the opinions of the right about as much as the right cares about the opinions of the left. Hoisting the left on their own petards is only in your mind. They just don’t see it that way. Hence, my lack of Give a Shit over every little anti-2A pebble thrown in the gun lake.
The NRA calls themselves the oldest civil rights organization. It seems the civil rights of law abiding gun owners are going down the tubes. “No Irish, no Jews” of the past is becoming “gun owners unwelcome.”
So when are our rallys?
We went over this repeatedly yesterday. There is nothing illegal about any of the age limits you suggest.
You don’t have the right to force a private entity to do business with you unless there’s a law protecting them from discimination. Federally, age isn’t protected except in employment cases. Unless your state has a law you are SOL on this.
But the private entity in question has already, of its own volition, decided to do business with the person in question. It is a matter of the private entity telling that person, “I will sell you Product A, but not Product B.”
How is that legal?
The business has chosen to make its goods available for sale to the general public. The business has offered for sale goods that are lawful to sell. The business has demonstrated willingness to sell goods in general to a given person. The person is of lawful age and otherwise lawful to purchase a specific good. The business then refuses sale of that specific good to that person, based solely on the age of that person.
How does that not violate the right of public accommodation, as legislated, and as adjudicated by the courts?
I actually sort of view this “stores doing what they think is the responsible thing” as a good thing.
For years and years, we’ve been told by the left that we need increasingly intrusive regulations on businesses because “the invisible hand will push businesses to do whatever is the cheapest possible thing”, and will ignore all other factors to that end. “We need strong environmental regulations because otherwise the companies will pour poison into the reservoir” type crap.
This sort of puts that to the test.
I don’t think that it’s a good idea, I don’t think that it’s necessary, and it makes me less likely to shop at Walmart (I can’t really get away from Kroger reasonably), but it’s an interesting moment in a broader political sense.
I realized that I should add how furious I am with the companies dropping their NRA bonuses because of the Parkland attack.
That’s an outright accusation, saying that “We believe that 17 students are dead because of NRA members, people like you”.
Even if they bring the programs back, I can’t see giving any of them my money for a good long time.
Neither side has any rights anymore in these buying or selling discrimination issues. That ship sailed a long time ago. All it takes is 51% in a local legislative body and we can force these retailers not to discriminate. The only question is if we have the will to do it. I am not inconvenienced by Walmart or Kroger’s stance because I don’t shop there (bye bye Kroger) but if any pro gun folks who do want to get a law passed I’ll gladly support them.
Because you don’t know how its legal, doesn’t make it not legal. It’s legal, its legal for Kroger, Walmart, S-mart, K-Mart, or any other place.
Well, thank you for your well-articulated explanation. Oh, wait: “it’s legal, because it’s legal” isn’t an explanation; it is merely tautology.
Why do you even care? So much that you pull out the big words? Most of us can use big words too but don’t want to look like uptight pansies. Does every driver doing 80 in a 70 upset you?
99.9% of Americans don’t give a dang that Fred Meyer Somebody raised their gun buying minimum age from 18 to 21. So what?
And no, Taylor, I don’t have a study to back up that statistic. It’s the Internet, not a scientific or medical journal.
Why do I even care? Because 18 year olds are adults, and have rights. Some of us respect and fight for all rights, for everyone – because of the God-given sanctity of human life, and because we know that failing to fight for rights, or for those whose rights, we deem to be unimportant today will inevitably lead to encroachment upon our rights tomorrow.
I can’t help your psychological projection when encountering big words. I would offer to use fewer syllables, but I speak and write the way that I speak and write, and I honestly couldn’t care less what your opinion is on the matter.
Similarly, I couldn’t care less what speed other drivers drive. If someone wants to drive faster than me, I get out of their way. I merely expect the same courtesy in return.
Let me know when you’re ready to have an adult conversation. What I’ve seen from you so far doesn’t impress me much.
You seriously use “tautology” when physically speaking to other human beings.? I’ve got more than a few letters succeeding my last name (not bullshit PhD or mental health nonsense either), pompous ass isn’t one of them.
Dude, intelligent people shake their heads in disbelief after guys using words like that walk away.
BTW, there is no “right” for 18year old to buy firearms specifically from Fred Meyer or Walmart.
So, I take it, you’re still not ready to engage in civil discourse. Hush now; the adults are talking.
This smells very much of corporate lawyers pointing out that the cost and the optics of a law suit following another shooting would be worse than the sales they might loose in not selling to the under 21 crowd. It will be interesting to see if this is just a policy shield that will not actually be enforced at the stores. It will also be interesting to see if this causes another brief ammo shortage as youner gun owners stock pile ammo.
Hopefully some 19 or 20 year old military personal will try to buy ammo while in uniform. If they are refused they can claim discrimination due to the uniform. They probably would not win, but the optics would look horrible and the story would likely go viral.
For me this is a property rights issue mostly. These stores own it until they sell it to you. I don’t think any store should be forced to sell something they don’t want any more than I think a bakery should be forced to sell a cake to someone they don’t want to.
“I bet local gun store owners are increasingly happy these days . . .”
My thoughts precisely. Fewer big box stores selling what people want and need means more business for privately owned, privately run ‘mom and pop’ shops. More prosperity in local economies!
Win/Win/Win!!!
Kroger is more expensive than the Meijer that is equidistant from my house, and Meijer sells ammo, clothes, electronics, and housewares, unlike Kroger which is all food. I still don’t buy gun stuff at Meijer though. During the Great Ammo Drought they only had one box of .44 Magnum sitting in the case by itself for like a year.
Whatever. Private business, and all.
They’ll do fine with Fudds, just like Dicks and Wal Mart.
Fudds and everybody else that doesn’t give a shit, which I estimate as 99 % of Americans.
by sell, are these places also including FFL transfers?
If this Fred Meyer chain is as craptastic as the numerous Krogers I’ve been in, this development can’t be too much of a loss. They can’t even keep a clean store in the town where their corporate HQ is.
The sad truth is I can’t boycott Walmart so I’m not going to pretend I can or will. Their actions are stupid but it’s their store and their financial loss of firearms sales. I never considered Walmart my go to firearms store anyways and if you need help with sporting goods good luck finding someone who knows what they’re talking about. We don’t have Fred Meyers where I live but it is certainly easier to boycott them and Dick’s. Let’s face it, If Fred Meyers is anything like Dicks then they are trying to appeal to the yuppie crowd anyways. I prefer my gun stores dusty, welcoming, and with friendly expert advise and a willingness to wheel and deal a little. I am boycotting Dicks but I haven’t shopped in the local Dicks Sports store in 4-5 years because their prices suck.
Exactly. At least you admit what all the keyboard boycotters will not, boycotts work great when they aren’t one of “your” stores. Price and convenience trump boycotts just about every time.
Kroger is very business conscientious. How in the hell they thought this was best for bottom line is beyond me. Fred Meyer is going to go down, as their Kroger/King Soopers/etc Marketplaces are going to end up making them obsolete. They’re generally care about the customer, however, the employee is an expendable resource and is last on their priority list.
I live in Texas. Two Kroger stores are within 3 miles of my home.
It’s not like we have no choice where we shop. Henceforth, Food Town, Aldi, Randall’s, JoeV’s Grocers and HEB it is.
Screw Kroger
HEB has a 30.07, Whole Foods has a 30.06 and probably a .07, and Trader Joe’s has a 30.07. Kroger has neither and stood up to MDA when they demanded that they be added.
Not saying I agree with the policy to raise the age for ammunition/firearm sales, but to me, despite their actions at another branch of the company,they’re still the lesser evil for my grocery purchases.
Meh…haven’t been in a Kroger in 20years.
Gee, I wish my Kroger stores sold guns and ammo.
I live in a rural area. Kroger and Walmart are my only realistic options.
Sad to see this. Kroger was generally considered to be “gun friendly” in the past as they told the Mommies demanding action to take a hike when they wanted Kroger to ban the carry of firearms in their grocery stores.
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