KMCC Ranting

There are fantastic KMCC AAFES employees doing their best each day to ensure the job is done correctly and customers are taken care of to the best of their ability but there's a limit to their scope of influence and authority. My concerns are not with these fantastic individuals who embrace a job well done and the delivery of good customer service.

There's a reason sales are down 9% for AAFES Europe according to the Stars and Stripes. From a users standpoint in the KMC area AAFES broke almost everything that was working for them. If I were an AAFES stock holder in a for profit world I would expect the board to hold those accountable who have the reins on strategic execution ie: starting with the senior KMC manager and moving up the chain from there.

Retail =
1. Carry what the customer needs and wants ie: not $1000 bicycles, $300 coats, and an end cap full of air hoses. Price the rack of bicycles at Walmart and coats at LLBean - way different. Carry hot dogs in the small Ramstein shopett because they sell regardless of what the employee told me that its extra work to manage the buns.
2. Keep it in stock ie: sales+lead time+minimum purchase quantity+seasonality+promotions = not algebra.
3. Grow a culture of good customer service. Every office has poor employees and this is a mater of pride they have to live with themselves but don't make it a rule that your local national employees are not allowed to tell the client where they shop on the economy as my wife experienced. If your employee resolves a customers dilemma when they want to buy a bicycle and their budget is $150 you grow a reputation of integrity and THE place to go not THE place to avoid and trust my I avoid the KMCC as almost always its a waste of my time.

I truly truly cannot believe between the KMCC senior manager, AAFES Dallas office, and the Dallas purchasing staff they cannot merchandise to the community needs or purchase to support the volume and yet they look the KMC community and Congress in the eye and say they're doing a good job. Anyone can manipulate numbers for the meeting room based on the image they want to project. Regardless, the KMC military community is the looser with no expected resolution in sight. In my home a solid estimate of business AAFES has lost since the change has been for greater than 9%.