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Teamwork is a major aspect of the way military exchanges and
commissaries and their suppliers, brokers and distributors do
business. Whether it is between divisions and/or personnel or
even, and especially, across services and systems, doing things together
tends to enhance the end result across the board.
In the past few years, it seems, cooperative efforts have built upon
their hard-won momentum of the early 2000s and prior years, and now
seem to have taken on a life of their own.
Previous generations of resale commanders and directors deserve
credit for establishing a solid foundation of cooperation built on exchange
downrange efforts; the common sense of global logistics resource
sharing; other exchange programs such as the mutual acceptance
of gift cards, and Exchange Online. There were many other smaller
programs that got less attention, too, but were equally effective and
beneficial to patrons.
In recent years, the whole field of cooperation has opened up to
include the entire exchange, commissary, and morale, welfare and
recreation (MWR) universe. It has expanded to encompass all kinds
of outreach to Guard and reserves, and to involve a wide portfolio of
sales, in-store marketing, supply chain and family support initiatives.
Indeed, as this issue goes to press, the Army & Air Force Exchange
Service (AAFES) is meeting with the Army Family and MWR Command
(FMWRC), and part of their discussion will address a joint effort
to supply personal information services to their patrons on military
installations. Other cross-service examples include “Operation Be Fit”
and the “Family Fun Fitness Festival” scheduled for May, involving
commissaries, exchanges and MWR.
With the numerous cooperative efforts going on among the services,
we think it is time to investigate whether another initiative — allowing
the employees of the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) to truly
shop the commissaries that they serve so well — should be undertaken.
Overseas, DeCA employees who are not local nationals can shop in
commissaries, because U.S. government civilian employees can shop
in DeCA stores there.
Stateside, however, DeCA employees who are not commissary authorized
are not permitted to go, either with or without their families, to
do their general grocery shopping at these stores.
Some of our readers may not be familiar with the fact that commissary
shopping privileges for DeCA staff in the 50 United States,
the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories, are limited to those employees
performing official duties in a commissary, and are restricted
to the purchase of commissary products (excluding tobacco products)
for personal consumption during meal periods and authorized breaks
within scheduled working hours. Not much to get excited about if all
you eat for lunch is a yogurt and a banana!
It makes little business sense that these personnel are not permitted
to take full advantage of the benefit they provide at commissaries. Extending
DeCA employees increased privileges to shop the very stores
they serve would not only strengthen the business aspect of the benefit
but would also help recruit and retain the best employees. In addition,
it could possibly raise customer satisfaction even higher — what better
way to learn about enhancing the experience than by living it?
Outside the gate, not only are supermarket employees permitted to
shop the stores they work in, they are often encouraged to do so by
employee privileges such as discounts that they can use while shopping
these stores. In the private sector, it has been found that this is a boost
to business and efficiencies — not a hindrance.
Exchange employees can shop the exchange stores that they serve;
why is the same not true of commissary employees?
The numbers of DeCA employees we're talking about isn't that
large. Already around 44 percent of the approximately 14,000 eligible
staff, excluding about 3,700 overseas personnel, are commissary authorized
by virtue of being military spouses or dependents. That leaves
about 8,000 persons — a number the system can easily accommodate.
We realize this is an uphill battle, but with all the cooperation and
collaboration going on, we think it is high time that these personnel be
extended a greater measure of these privileges to match their service to
the commissary system. We don't think it will dilute the benefit; it will
simply strengthen it.
While it may not be an earth-shattering issue in the big picture, to
the people involved it means an awful lot. In this case, it's not too much
of a good thing — it's more of a good thing. Let's take the first step. It
is the right thing to do.
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