Publix probably changed policy just to shut up the unbearable bitching from repulsive transplanted Northeast democrat filth ...mostly hags.
I am sure that is why they decided to reverse their decision. Notice they only cited open carry.
Incidentally, I was across the street taking money out of a Sun Bank ATM to go shopping at Publix in 1987 in Palm Bay, FL when William Cruse went on his mass murder shooting spree. I was only a few hundred yards away and minutes from being there myself. I had a gun in my car glove compartment. The CCW law passed in Florida, also in 1987. I don't know if before or after the shooting, but I did not have a CCW permit. This event shocked me into getting a CCW permit and I have had one ever since.