(CNN) – Publix will now ask customers not to openly carry firearms in their stores where open portage is legal.

"Publix respectfully requests that only law enforcement officials openly carry firearms in our stores," the company said in a statement released Wednesday.

The grocery chain's new policy comes after Walmart, Kroger, CVS and other retailers have made similar announcements, according to CNN.

Publix is ​​one of the largest grocery chains in the country, with more than 200,000 employees and 1,226 stores in the southeastern United States.

While headquartered in Florida, a state that does not allow open port, Publix has several sites in Georgia and Alabama, where people can openly carry guns.