The murder of 10 people Monday in a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado marks another shootout at a Kroger-owned supermarket.
King Soopers is a Denver-based subsidiary of supermarket giant Kroger. It operates more than 150 stores in Colorado and Wyoming. Kroger is based in Cincinnati. Other grocery stores were also the scene of horrific attacks, including the 2019 Walmart mass murder in El Paso that killed 23 people.
How Kroger reacted to the shooting in the boulder shop
Kroger’s statement Monday evening:
“We are appalled and deeply saddened by the senseless violence that has taken place at our King Soopers store on Table Mesa Drive in Boulder, CO.
“The entire Kroger family offers our thoughts, prayers and support to our employees, customers and first aiders who reacted so courageously to this tragic situation.
“We will continue to work with local law enforcement and our business will remain closed during the police investigation.
“To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, we are referring questions to the Boulder Police Department.”
Kroger’s gun policy
After mass shootings in other locations, Kroger changed its gun policies and sales practices.
In 2019, Kroger asked buyers to leave their firearms at home. The policy change came a day after grocery competitor Walmart made a similar change. The previous policy has been to defy state or local gun regulations.
“We’ve been talking about this for a while. Our clients have told us that it would make them feel safer if we did,” said McMullen after joining The Enquirer. “We really only listen to our customers.”
The policy change came months after a 2018 shootout in suburban Louisville when the then 51-year-old Gregory Alan Bush entered a kroger that targeted black victims and killed two. He later pleaded guilty but was mentally ill and was sentenced to life without parole.
In 2018, Kroger announced that it would cease sales of firearms and ammunition in the stores of its Portland, Oregon-based subsidiary Fred Meyer (which operates 132 stores in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington). At the time, the company led a decline in customer demand for the decision.
Almost half of the mass shootings (45.6%) took place in companies, according to a 2014 study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
For the latest information on Kroger, P&G, Fifth Third Bank, and Cincinnati, visit @alexcoolidge on Twitter.
Comments are closed.