The publicly traded Fresh Market Store chain (nasdaq TFM) headquartered in North Carolina has instituted a customer discrimination policy of no longer allowing any customers to have legal firearms or any weapons on them or they cannot enter any of the companies stores.

This discriminatory policy includes those persons licensed to legally carry concealed weapons, as well as police officers.
The store offered no explanation as to the reasoning behind banning customers from their stores, only placing huge signs on every door nationwide that those customers were no longer welcome on its premises.

When contacted a representative from The Fresh Market stated that they were reviewing their policy, then over a month later no further information or comment was forthcoming, and the customer ban is still in place.

It is interesting that a publicly traded company would be so hostile towards its customer base, or arrogant to think that they could so severely limit their sales that they could eliminate millions of customers from its sales.

Austin Texas based Whole Foods does not allow this sort of discrimination, and when contacted a representative stated that they welcome all customers turned away by The Fresh Market, and that they have a duty to shareholders to be an inclusive company to maximize sales, and not to alienate customers.

The Fresh Market is the only national grocery store to ever ban legal weapon carry in its stores by customers.