Fred Meyer to stop selling guns, ammunition

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Superstore company Fred Meyer says it will stop selling guns and ammunition.

The Portland-based chain in an announcement Friday says it made the decision after evaluating customer preferences. The company has more than 130 stores in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.

The company in a statement says the firearms category represents about $7 million annually of its revenue and sales are declining. It says it will phase out the sales of guns and ammunition, but didn’t give a timeline.

Several weeks ago, in response to last month’s high school shooting in Florida that left 17 people dead, the company said it would stop selling firearms to anyone under 21.

The company, a subsidiary of Kroger Co., had already stopped selling assault-style guns several years ago, except in Alaska.

Kroger also is going to stop selling magazines about assault rifles, a spokeswoman for the grocery chain said on Friday.

Kroger didn’t specify how the company will screen gun magazines for “assault rifles.” Some magazines, like Field & Stream, focus on hunting rifles and shotguns. Other magazines focus on handguns. But military-style assault rifles often appear on the cover of magazines like Guns & Ammo, Recoil and Tactical Life.

People often use the term “assault rifles” to refer to semiautomatic military-style rifles that are widely available to civilians in the US.