It took 5 months, but someone finally got their panties in a bunch over us Open Carrying in Costco. (Yes both of us were carrying.)
We got to the back of the store, by the Bakery before Tom (He introduced himself as the Warehouse mgr) spotted us. He comes up to Matt and asks "Are you Law Enforcement?"
Upon Matt's, "No, we're just exercising our rights", He starts with, "Well you know we're a private membership club..."
"Of course we know", I reply, "we've been members for thirteen years".
He of course went
"...well we have a strict no
open weapons in our clubs..."
Matt: "That's interesting because most chains like this abide by the state laws, and the Delaware State Constitution allows for Open Carry." Matt begins to clarify, "So the people who would be in here CONCEALED carry, you have no problem with that?"
Tom: "No, I'd have no problem with that."
Gotcha.
(reading the policy it says "Guns" not 'openly carried guns'.)
He continues to explain that Costco doesn't want us to be able to protect ourselves, but they have no obligation to do it for us. They don't even have the Mall's joke of "security".
Keep in mind, the entire time he's talking directly to Matt, and ignored me so long as I wasn't speaking to him. To the point of turning his back on me.
"So I'm going to need you to put your guns in your car."
I spoke up, "I'm sorry, that won't be happening. Especially with that man being held at gunpoint in your parking lot. What you can do, is escort us to the service desk so we can cancel our membership."
Matt: "You can also get us the number of the person to speak with about your policies."
Tom: "Sure, I'll write that down for you." He stops by the laptops to lean on the counter, writes the number and hands it to Matt. (Still ignoring me.)
Matt: "If you're going to
discriminate against people exercising their rights under Article One subsection twenty of the DE state constitution you should post signs, and allow the people who will be buying memberships to know that you don't support their right to protect themselves, so that way things like this don't happen." He stops walking, "On second thought we're going to handle this on a corporate level. You have yourself a nice day."
On hearing words like "discriminate" and "Constitution" his eyes got bigger and bigger.
As we start walking out the "enter" door, rather than go out past the membership desk, Tom stops us again. "Wait, can I get your names?" (Why, so you can flag our membership? Hell no.)
I'm getting ready to answer "John and Jane Smith", when Matt answers, "No, we'll handle this on a corporate level."
Me: "You have a NICE day."
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All in all, we tried VERY hard to express that we were upset with the situation, without making OCers look like
. We just want to be able to protect ourselves.
You know what amuses me? I was wearing my side arm in my membership card photo. /SMH
The phone number was for Robert Leuck VP of our region. I tried to Google his email, to no avail. I did however find emails for the CFO, the CEO and the Board of Trustees.
Amy
NRA Certified Firearms Instructor--Basic Pistol, Refuse to be a Victim
Justice Firearms Training
DECCDW PALTCF DESO
Tea, glorious tea!
http://blackthornhoodooblends.com/
