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Kmart to Phase Out Sale of Ammunition
06/28/01


DETROIT (AP) - In the wake of protests by gun control advocates, Kmart Corp. has announced that it will phase out the sale of handgun ammunition over the next 90 days.

Officials for the discount chain, which includes more than 2,000 stores and is headquartered in Troy, Mich., made the announcement Thursday. It came after meetings between company executives, filmmaker Michael Moore and victims of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

However, company spokeswoman Julie Fracker said Kmart's decision was based on marketing concerns, not pressure from Moore and gun control groups.

"Obviously we consider ourselves a socially conscious business, but this was a business decision made in the best interests of the company," she said.

Fracker said the sale of firearms and ammunition has been under review as part of the merchandising strategy of the company's new executive team for some time.

The stores do not carry handguns, but do sell hunting rifles and other long guns. Fracker said the company found that demand for handgun ammunition at its store was nominal.

Moore and three survivors of the Columbine shooting met with Kmart executives in Troy for four hours on Wednesday, requesting they take the ammunition off their shelves.

The group held a news conference Thursday to announce the results of the meetings and call attention to gun violence.

Moore said he is very happy and surprised with Kmart's decision.

"I'm totally, totally stunned by the response from Kmart today, he said.

Moore spokeswoman Meghan O'Hara said the filmmaker began looking at the Columbine shooting as part of his current film project which examines the roles of guns and fear in American society.

Moore is best known for his 1989 documentary "Roger & Me," which assailed General Motors Corp.'s actions in closing a plant in Moore's hometown, Flint.

Messages were left Thursday evening seeking comment from the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign and Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Fracker said the phasing out of ammunition began Thursday. The ending of sales of ammunition at individual stores will vary depending when they run out of the ammunition they currently have in stock.

Similar changes are not in the works at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's No. 1 retailer.

Jessica Maser, spokeswoman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based company, said its marketing studies show that there is a customer demand for handgun ammunition at Wal-Mart stores.

Maser said the company makes ever effort to make sure the ammunition does not get into the wrong hands and that all sales associates who sell the ammunition are properly trained.

"The bottom line is: We follow customer demand, but we also follow the law," she said.

Wal-Mart stores, except for those in Alaska, do not sell handguns. Like Kmart, they also carry hunting rifles and related accessories, Maser said.

We should meet with other stores and see if we can them to put ammo on the shelve. I head over to 7-11 and see if they would start selling ammo(you will never know when you are going to need ammo in the middle of the night), Someone else should go to Blockbuster Video and Best Buy.


Six

K-Nazis!

Suspending ammo sales is okay in a way.  I don't shop much at KMART anyways.  Their service is SO slow, I usually don't bother with them.  But it is unfortunate

Send them an email.

Let them know they are being boycotted.

On the BlueLight site, the e-mail address for customer support about product availability, policies, etc. is [url][email protected][/url]

They also list a toll-free number, 1-866-562-7848.

Let's let'em know how we feel about this.

[-!-!-] Moore and [-!-] K-Mart. Shop at Wal-Mart.

Tom Cruise: "Tell him, Ray."

Dustin Hoffman: "K-mart sucks."

Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

Uh-oh - seven minutes to Wapner...

P3[pyro][rolleyes]

I have not stepped foot in a K-Mart since Rosie O'Fatass appeared in their commercials way back when. F**k 'em [:(!]

OK this is all it took, 3 minutes. I sent this to Kmart.
To whom it may concern,
     I had in the past sent you email concerning your spokesperson Rosie O'Donnell.  After she left your employ I did again start going back to Kmart.
     I was glad to see your new corporate pricing policy,  Now though, dropping handgun ammunition sales to LAW ABIDING customers, after you meet with a group of people that refuse to to to the root of their community problem. And in fact seek to deprive myself and others of our Constitional Right.
     It is sad the death and carnage that occured in Columbine, but the underlying social problems are being ignorred for sensationalism.  Unfortunately, your corporation appears to have chosen to side with them.
     Well I am sure that Walmart  will enjoy my patronage.

Damn we do not have Kmarts up here in Canada.  They went belly up and all of their stores were sold to Zellers......

I did call the Walmart store up here and they are going to keep ammo.  Mind you they never have had handgun ammo...


Keep on em down there!!

K-Mart sucks for anything gun related anyway. I can never find the ammo I need and when I needed a cheap gun safe they couldn't even find the keys for any models they had in stock. And trying to get any help whatsoever in the sporting goods department is a joke. In area at least, they might as well not bother as they are useless to me anyway.

You know what is beautiful? Kmart doesn't know I don't shop there. All they know is that I now won't set foot in one. They also know that for 1 complaint a 100 complaints are silent.
EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL  it gets their attention