‘Guns Are Welcome’: One Restaurant Bucked a Trend — Here’s What Happened Next
As many restaurants, including Starbucks, Sonic and Chili’s, tell customers to leave their guns at home, one restaurant in East Tennessee took a different approach — and gained quite a few customers.
Sharma Floyd, owner of Shiloh Brew and Chew, adopted a gun-friendly policy after she read about other restaurants banning firearms, WBIR-TV reported.
“[The other restaurant] had put up a sign that said ‘No Weapons Allowed’ and they were robbed at gunpoint two days later,” Floyd recounted. “That got me thinking.”
She posted a “Guns are Welcome” sign on the front door of her establishment about a month ago, and since then, she says business has really picked up.
Image source: screengrab via WBIR-TV
“I can honestly say I’ve gotten way more support than the one person who really gave me a lot of grief over it,” said Floyd. ”I have had so many customers take pictures of the sign, ask to meet me in person, and thank me.”
Floyd says she keeps some safety precautions in mind — for instance, she won’t serve beer to customers who are carrying firearms — and so far the policy seems to be doing nothing but good things for her business.
“There have been as many as eight people in here at one time who I know for a fact had guns,” Floyd said. “And no one would have known it except I know them personally. They’re law abiding, god fearing, Christian people. And that’s what I stand on. That’s what my restaurant is based on. ”
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