Action Line #91004 – Two items

  • Published
  • By 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Complaint: 

I have a question regarding the enforcement of the rules on buying more than two items of certain products at the Commissary, BX or Shoppette. Today my family and I were at the Commissary, waiting in line to pay for our groceries; there were only two lines opened. All of a sudden, a lady appeared with a cart fully loaded top to bottom with cat food items (dry food bags, canned food, etc) in clear violation of the stated regulation. In a matter of less than a minute a local national cashier opened up the farthest line, allowed this lady to pay for her items (even before all of us, who were patiently waiting) and then closed the line again. A bagger quickly carried her items to her vehicle, which had American plates (MA); we assume she is a dependent. We did not notice the cashier ask this lady for proper identification, and it seemed to us that she was "helped" by the employees to hurry out of the store. How are the rules enforced to ensure people are complying with them? What can we do when we see something like that? Can we as military members stop this person and call 39 SFS to intervene without violating her "rights"? It is frustrating to see people break the law and act as if nothing has happened. I appreciate your time and response.

Response:
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to address this issue. We are very much aware of the tremendous problems with black marketing. When it's suspected we keep duplicate receipts on file. Unlike dog food, cat food is not considered a highly pilferable item, which are those items with specific limits on how many can be bought, but USAFE instructions specifically prohibit individuals from purchasing unreasonable quantities of any item at the commissary or BX. An entire basket of cat food would seem to be unreasonable, and you were correct in bringing this to our attention.

The employee in question was the customer manager. As is normally done whenever there is more than four customer in line, the commissary opens a third register to ensure there is as little waiting time as possible as was done in this case. When this customer approached the register with such a large amount of pet food the customer service manager questioned the purchase, and the customer explained that she had three cats and was going on leave to the USA for 30 days and her friend was going to take care of her animals. We have a 100 percent identification check policy and it's enforced with every customer.

Regarding what you can do if you witness this type of action again, you can always inform the individual of USAFE's prohibition on purchasing unreasonable quantities of items, and you should definitely inform