Action Line #80301 - BX Vendor

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

I am writing about the vendors at the BX. I understand the vendors outside the BX or in the food court but I don't understand how a local vendor has the jewelry counter all to himself. We have no option on base to buy jewelry except through this vendor.

I know there is a difference in the AAFES jewelry and this vendors' and the prices reflect that! If we want to spend that money on jewelry we can easily go off base to this vendors store front. I feel we are having a small bit of our "niceities" taken away from us one at a time. It is hard enough to get things here in Turkey and now if we want jewelry at a decent price we have to order that online now too!

Not all the stuff this vendor sells is expensive but for the most part it is more expensive than the AAFES jewelry was. Not only that, when the checkout lines at the BX were backed up we had the option to go to the jewelry counter to check out, now we are not able to do that. 

Response:

I understand your concerns and am very sensitive about making sure our BX provides us with goods not available locally. The last thing we want is to turn the BX into a Turkish Bazaar. Inside the BX itself, you will find that the jewelry counter is the only Turkish vendor and there is a history to this.

A little over a year ago we conducted a review of all the departments in the BX. The Jewelry Department was identified as a category where we were not moving any merchandise. We investigated further and found that over 90% of the jewelry we carried had no sales history whatsoever! We also found that most of the Incirlik BX customers were buying their jewelry off base because the price and selection was far better than what we could offer.

Given this fact, we determined that the best way to serve our customers was to solicit an outside vendor to sell jewelry in the BX. We conducted a very lengthy solicitation process to identify the vendor that would meet AAFES standards and customer expectations.

We are continuing to monitor this arrangement and can always readdress if it does not work out.

As you mention, AAFES jewelry is still available on line if you prefer the brands/items AAFES typically carries. Thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns.