The killing of 10 people on Monday at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, marks another shooting 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 food outlets have also been the scene of horrific attacks, including the 2019 mass killing in Walmart in El Paso that killed 23 people.
How Kroger responded to Boulder store shooting
Kroger's statement Monday night:
"We are horrified and deeply saddened by the senseless violence that occurred at our King Soopers store located on Table Mesa Drive in Boulder, CO.
"The entire Kroger family offers our thoughts, prayers and support to our associates, customers, and the first responders who so bravely responded to this tragic situation.
"We will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement and our store 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
In the wake of mass shootings elsewhere, Kroger has changed its gun policies and sales practices.
In 2019, Kroger asked shoppers to leave their firearms at home. The change in policy came a day after grocery rival Walmart made a similar change. The previous policy had been to defer to state or local gun regulations.
"This is something we've talked about for some time – it's something our customers told us would make them feel safer if we did it," McMullen told The Enquirer after the switch. "We're really just listening to our customers."
The policy change came months after a 2018 shooting in suburban Louisville when Gregory Alan Bush, then 51, entered a Kroger targeting Black victims, killing two. He later pleaded guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to life without parole.
In 2018, Kroger said it would stop selling firearms and ammunition in the stores of its Portland, Oregon-based subsidiary Fred Meyers (which operates 132 stores in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington). At the time, the company cited declining customer demand for the decision.
Nearly half of mass shootings (45.6%) occur in business settings, according to a 2014 study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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