One of the most popular grocery store chains in the United States appears to have changed its policy about carrying firearms, at least in the state where it has its biggest footprint.
Publix has more than 1,400 stores across the country, but it dominates the Florida market. The company's headquarters are in Lakeland, Florida, and there are almost 900 stores spread out across the Sunshine State. The chain has never had a prohibition on lawful concealed carry, and when the state's open carry ban was struck down by the courts last year, Publix allowed the open carry of firearms as well.
That appears to have changed in recent days, according to a report by Suncoast Searchlight.
New signs posted at Publix stores now state: “Publix kindly asks that only law enforcement openly carry firearms in our stores.”
The message appears near the bottom of a broader list of store rules, alongside more routine policies like no pets and no soliciting.
A Publix customer service representative confirmed the policy change to Suncoast Searchlight and pointed to the Publix communications department for further questions. Suncoast Searchlight reached out to multiple Publix communications officials to understand the motive behind the decision. None responded by the time of publication.
Publix had adopted its open-carry policy last year after a Florida court ruling struck down the state’s ban on open carry except in self defense. At the time, Publix said it was acting to comply with “all federal, state and local laws.”
The decision drew criticism from some gun safety advocates because the ruling did not require private businesses to permit open carry. Other major grocery store chains, including Walmart and Costco, did not follow suit.
It's unclear whether Publix's new ask extends to stores outside of Florida where open carry has long been legal, like Virginia. The chain has moved into the Richmond and Hampton Roads/Virginia Beach/Norfolk area in recent years, and currently has 24 stores in operation in the Old Dominion. The nearest Publix to me is about an hour away, but I'll be passing by this weekend and I plan on stopping to take a look at the signage at the entrance to the store.
There have been no issues with folks openly carrying firearms in any store, at least that I'm aware of, but gun control activists have been asking customers to demand the chain make a change to its policy. It looks like that might have had some impact, though based on the language that's now posted it seems like the company hasn't outright prohibited open carry.
Though the wording on the new signs uses phrases like “kindly asks” and “prefers,” Spencer Myers, a state policy attorney with Giffords Law Center, a gun control lobbying group founded after the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, said Publix has every right as a private business to ask customers who open carry in its stores to leave.
“A sign like that is meant to be a deterrent, rather than something that, on its own, is fully carrying the force of law,” Myers said. “It's likely that these signs are meant to serve as a deterrent to circumstances where a store owner would have to ask someone to leave and to, instead, deter them from creating that situation in the first place.”
Every private property owner has the right to prohibit firearms on the premises if they so choose. In Florida, signage isn't required, nor does it have the force of law. If someone is openly carrying and are told to leave, though, they can be charged with felony armed trespassing if they refuse to comply.
But will Publix's new signage really have a deterrent effect? I think that remains to be seen, but inevitably some folks are going to choose to openly carry just to prove a point or to see what happens, even if they haven't done so in the past. I think it was a mistake for Publix to reverse course on open carry, from both a Second Amendment standpoint and a public relations perspective. The initial burst of news coverage over Publix allowing open carry in accordance with state law had died down, and it doesn't appear to have impacted the company's bottom line.
Publix reported sales of $16.1 billion in the first quarter of FY 2026, which was a 2% increase compared to the first quarter of FY 2025. Earnings were reported at $794 million, which was roughly 21% less than a year ago, but that was blamed by the company "on the impact of the Medicare maximum fair price (MFP) change effective January 1, 2026 which reduced drug prices for 10 drugs." Publix reported that store sales for the three months that ended on March 28, 2026 remained unchanged.
I doubt Publix is going to lose much business over its new open carry policy either, to be honest. But if the policy hasn't impacted sales one way or the other, why not just stick with the original rule that allowed for both forms of carrying in accordance with the law instead of bending the knee to the forces of gun control? It's not like groups like Giffords are going to be satisfied now that Publix is "kindly" asking folks not to open carry in their stores. In fact, I wonder how long it will be before the gun control lobby starts demanding Publix goes entirely gun-free?
