10/14/2025
This article reminded me of when I first moved to Phoenix from San Diego…
I was 21, working the graveyard shift as a night stocker at Smith’s Food & Drug — one of those 24-hour grocery stores. I’m stocking my aisle when I see a man carrying a gun. I quietly walk the other way and tell the night manager.
He laughs and says, “Could you see the gun?”
I say, “Yes.”
He replies, “Then don’t worry about that one… it’s the guns we can’t see that we worry about here in Phoenix.”
That was at Store #330 — which later became Store #130. By then, I had worked my way up and was the store manager.
Good times.
Side note the store on this article has a special memory for me…. I was closing this store when the Diamondback won the World Series in 2001… where were you when the Diamondbacks won the World Series?
Here's a look at what Arizona state law says about carrying a gun inside a grocery store.
