Store loses money, soldiers lose store

[unhappycamper]

Store loses money, soldiers lose store
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Tuesday, September 25, 2007


CAMP LONG, South Korea — Camp Long soldiers seeking anything beyond basic food and living products must now take one extra step before shopping — to catch a bus to Camp Eagle.

The remote installation’s Army and Air Force Exchange Service store closed Sept. 14, leaving the roughly 150 Camp Long-based soldiers waiting for an hourly shuttle bus to ride the seven miles to Eagle.

The closure should have been no surprise to those stationed there. Discarded boxes and empty shelves made it obvious the post exchange was ready to close a week before it did.

Officials say the store hemorrhaged money until it bled to death: Total sales dropped from about $2.77 million in 2004 to about $2.17 million in 2005. Sales dropped again to about $1.61 million in 2006 and, as of Sept. 10, sales for 2007 were only about $172,000, according to AAFES officials.

That meant earnings of $584,145 in 2004; $229,897 in 2005; $66,181 in 2006; and a loss of $16,919 for this year as of Sept. 10.

Army Maj. Bruce Townley, installation commander for Long and Eagle, said the reason the store lost so much money was that authorities busted a major black-market ring there last year.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=49001


uhc comment: Let's take a minute and think about this. PX in place for soldiers. Check. Black market alcohol available. Check. The store loses $16,919 for this year as of Sept. 10. Check. The army sez "Fuck You" and closes store. Check. Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

The last time I checked, 500-lb bombs were $280 or so.

The fuckers are squeezing everybody for every penny they can.

[Demit]

1. It's not clear to me: the store was run by South Koreans, but not owned by them?

Does the army own the store, so they're the ones who have the profit/loss?

[unhappycamper]

2. It's called 'outsourcing'.

It's part of the move to privatize everything.

[Demit]

3. My question is, who gets the profit or takes the loss at the store?

And you've confused me further—how is outsourcing relevant to this situation? The camp is in South Korea. Is it unusual for the army to have the natives of a country work at a store that's located there?

[rakeeb]

4. profit/loss

AAFES is a Non Appropriated Fund activity of the DoD, i.e. it operates on the revenue it generates, not from the DoD budget.
For the most part AAFES overall is able to operate on about a third of its revenue and pays the other two thirds into MWR.
A store that can't even earn enough to cover its own operation isn't just a drain on the rest of AAFES, it's a drain on MWR also.
But as a NAF activity, there is no way for the DoD to just kick in money to keep a store open, as easy as it may sound.
(why yes, I have spent way too much time chatting with aafes employees over the last decade).