Action Line #80602 - AAFES pogs

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

Every time I go into the BX or Shopette to buy something the prices are never just 95 cents or whole dollar amounts. The prices are always like 94 cents or $1.89. Which is not a problem but, AAFES knows they do not have pennies to give me in return so why don't they just charge either in increments of 5 cents or whole dollar amounts. If they cannot charge like that then why doesn't AAFES take the hit on the price instead of the consumer. They round up my price and keep the pennies that should be in my pocket. I know 1 cent does not seem like a lot but, over time pennies add up to a lot of money that could be used on other things. I know when I have deployed in the past AAFES did not give out change they gave out AAFES pogs to replace quarters, dimes nickels and pennies which you could use at any AFFES store just like money. Is there any way they could use those pogs here at Incirlik.

Response:

You ask an excellent question, one which I was curious about when I first arrived. One of the benefits of shopping at the BX is the prices are the same worldwide, whether you're in Texas or Germany. Because the price remains the same regardless of location we do not have the leeway to adjust our pricing at Incirlik. It is set, and we can't change it for the sake of a penny.

In reference to our policy of rounding transactions up or down for customers paying with cash: This policy started in Europe in the early 1980's when Military Command determined that the cost of shipping pennies to overseas locations was more expensive than the value of the pennies themselves. With the start-up of the effort in OEF/OIF, we continued to follow this policy and decided not to produce penny POGs, but to implement the rounding up/down policy that EUR and PAC had been using for years. Note that transactions using a check or any type of charge method will pay the exact amount; we only round up/down for cash transactions. It should ease your mind that research of the rounding practice has shown that, over the course of time, rounding up and down is a break-even process; you neither win nor lose.