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Little encounter in Walmart last night......

compmanio365

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Apr 21, 2007
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Pierce County, Washington, USA
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So my wife and I were shopping at the Puyallup Walmart last night; we had been there for about a half hour, making the rounds through the hardware, automotive, sporting goods and all that and were over in the food section of the store when we were approached by the assistant manager. I figured it wasn't going to be a big deal, since I had carried in this store dozens of times before and never had an issue, so why now. This person came up to me and said "Hey bro, what's that on your hip?" Now this was not a, "Hey bro" in a nice way....it was immediately clear from the first word out of this guy's mouth that he was going to be confrontational and irrational throughout the encounter. "It's my sidearm" I stated plainly. "You can't bring that into MY store, you got me?" "I'm sorry, I was under the impression that there was no problem with that since I have carried openly in this store for the past several months every time I've been here, dealt with many different staff members and never had anyone tell me that, in fact most of your staff here have given somewhat positive feedback regarding my openly carrying my sidearm in the store." "Well, you just can't bring that here, you gotta get that out of here." "Now hold on just a second, it was also my understanding that it was Walmart's policy, last I've heard, to allow open carry and not harrass those doing so in Walmart stores." "You just gotta get that THING out of here, you hear me?" At this point it was clear that I wasn't going to get any further with this person, and since he was just the assistant manager, I told him that I wanted to speak with the general manager of the store, since he was the one who would have to make the final decision whether or not he wanted my family's business or not. The guy ran off, since he didn't tell me to follow him and didn't ask me to stay right there to wait for him, I continued my shopping for another 5 minutes or so, when as we were ready to get into the checkout aisle, the general manager found us.

Now, the encounter with the general manager was entirely different than the previous one with the assistant manager. Once we recognized each other, I walked over his way and he just asked if he could talk to me real quick. Sure, I said, and stated that I'd sure like to fix the little misunderstanding we were having here. He agreed and as we began to talk, it became clear that what had happened was someone inside the store was not aware of the legality of open carrying and instead of talking to me directly about my carry, they went and found an employee, who went and found the assistant manager who then came and talked to me. I let the general manager know how displeased we were with the rudeness with which we were treated, and he stated that he was sorry for his employee overreacting a bit to the situation; apparently when the assistant manager found the general manager he was a bit shaken up, so he was obviously not comfortable dealing with that situation and hence why he was so short with us. I said I understood and said that maybe educating his managerial staff might stop such issues before they occured. He agreed and said he would talk with his people about how to respond to such issues.

He did ask if I could conceal it just for tonight to keep the other customers happy; I respectfully declined and explained that really to me that was pretty hypocritical if I decided to conceal my firearm just to make other people happy and that would be going against what we are trying to accomplish by open carrying by basically saying that I was doing something wrong in the first place by carrying the way I was. He understood that and said that he appreciated our business and definitely wanted us to continue being customers and that he just had to ask since some people were concerned. I let him know that if he wanted me to keep being a customer that he would have to understand that I would continue to openly carry in the store whenever I came; he was fine with that, he stated he agreed with what we were doing and the cause we were fighting for and that as a manager he just has to keep everyone happy is all. I let him know I totally understood that and that all we can do is try our best to make other people comfortable with open carry as possible.

We each said thanks and shook hands, we checked out and went on our way. As we were leaving the store, the assistant manager came out of an office and said "Have a nice night folks" with a sheepish look on his face, so I can only assume that he was talked to about his attitude towards us earlier.

All around, I don't think that could have gone any better than it did; I was not told to not come back, they want me to keep shopping there, even while open carrying, and we'll just all hope that none of the "natives" get scared in the meantime.......

(EDIT: OK, OK, I made paragraphs....happy now? ;))
 

John Pierce

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Great job!!! I especially liked the fact that you declined to conceal "just for tonight". That seems to be a tactic that more and more people (LEO and otherwise) are using to chip away at OC.

Thanks for all you do!
 

Mainsail

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Silverdale, Washington, USA
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I think you did well. It’s a fine line that I hate to walk; being asked to leave but doubting the person’s authority to ask it of you. Good job on walking that tightrope and having the forethought to ask for the general manager. It’s these types of incidents that really help the cause. The assistant manager learned that firearms don’t automatically equal danger or crime.
 

G27

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Jun 29, 2007
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573
Location
Kitsap County, Washington, USA
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Mainsail wrote:
The assistant manager learned that firearms don’t automatically equal danger or crime.
What?! I thought only LEO's, military, and criminals were the only people that carried firearms!! :lol: Good job, Camp. It's people like you that make it easier for me to OC. I really do appericate you sticking up for our rights.
 

Mainsail

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Apr 24, 2007
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Silverdale, Washington, USA
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I went to the new Wal-mart in Lakewood on Saturday. I browsed around a little and ended up in the sporting goods section to buy some .45ACP to finish the break-in on my Sig 1911. I had to lean over the counter and do the !@#%#$% eye test trying to read the ammo boxes and prices locked in the case behind the counter. I stood there for about ten minutes and there were no employees anywhere to be found. Finally I decided I’d had enough and left. Nothing interesting to report.

It bugs the crap out of me that stores (and they all do this) can watch me on their CCTV and see that I obviously need assistance, and never notify anyone that I need help. Pocket something, and suddenly they are all ‘aware’ of you and what you’re doing.
 

Misguided Child

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Nov 3, 2007
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, Washington, USA
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Mainsail wrote:
It bugs the crap out of me that stores (and they all do this) can watch me on their CCTV and see that I obviously need assistance, and never notify anyone that I need help. Pocket something, and suddenly they are all ‘aware’ of you and what you’re doing.

So this is my first post on this fine website, discovered it last night after the Guys at Sams Gunshop educated me about OC. I always thought that you couldn't OC in Wa especially if you had a CPL. And this comment from Mainsail made me think I could add to the education here. I work for another very large retail store and I know how it goes. The CCTV isn't watched continously, we're lucky if we can get to it every other day for a few minutes. It takes an obvious event for us to go back and frantically look among the 24 cameras to see if we can catch just the right moment to see a theft being commited. By then we usually can't do anything about it.

In my store we lose anywhere from $1000-$4000 a day to thieves, avg probably $1500. I would bet that Wal-mart is losing $2000/day due to it's location and vast amount of small stuff that can fit inside clothes.

I would love to have more people OC'ing in my store. It doesn't take much to freak out the scumbags. Someone carrying while walking down an aisle would be enough to make them think they police were there watching them and they would leave without taking anything with them.
 

Agent 47

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Aug 28, 2007
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, Washington, USA
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Good to see you over here, I usuallytalk to at least a coupledozen people every day about OC. I agree any kid thinking about pocketing something may think twice whensome guy with a gun walks past.
 

HankT

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Feb 20, 2007
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Invisible Mode
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Mainsail wrote:
I had to lean over the counter and do the !@#%#$% eye test trying to read the ammo boxes and prices locked in the case behind the counter.

I had to laugh at this, since I've done the same mostly futile leanover the counter so many times. I never give up though, because I always have tolook for the marked-down stickers (orange). I picked up abunch of .44 mag Federal defense loadsone time--very cheap.

In recent months I have noticed some of theWal-Marts in my area change over to a locked ammo display cabinet with glass doors righton the aisle. Much easier to see, though still can't find those dman clerks to check me out when I'm ready to buy.
 

amlevin

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Feb 16, 2007
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North of Seattle, Washington, USA
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Mainsail wrote:
I had to lean over the counter and do the !@#%#$% eye test trying to read the ammo boxes and prices locked in the case behind the counter
Just go to the cheap binoculars that are on display. Take a pair over and read the boxes using them.
 
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