Homemakers Parent Company’s Gun Policy Doesn’t Apply at Urbandale Store

If you’re picking out furniture in Urbandale’s Homemakers Furniture store, don’t pack heat.

The store’s parent company, Nebraska Furniture Mart, will allow customers to carry concealed weapons in the store in about three months. At the same time, some of the mega store’s security guards will be armed, the Des Moines Register reported.

According to the story, the policy is consistent with Nebraska state law, which allows its citizens to carry concealed weapons if they have a permit to do so.

Iowa law also allows citizens the carry concealed weapons, but the policy hasn’t been extended to Nebraska Furniture Mart’s stores in the Hawkeye state, which include a small store in Clive as well as the larger Homemakers in Urbandale. Armed security guards also are not planned for the local stores.

Homemakers President Dave Merschman said the no-weapons policy remains in effect in the store founded by his family and sold to Nebraska Furniture Mart, a division of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in 2000.

Bob Batt, an executive vice president at Nebraska Furniture Mart, said the policy change at the parent store’s Omaha and Kansas City stores “was made based on the safety and security of customers and staff and not because of any incidents at the stores.”

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