I just read that AAFES has the lowest customer satisfaction. How do you rate the AAFES on your installation?

I used to work for Hitachi military sales as a BX vendor floor rep in the late 90's. Until this millennium The BX was competitive against stores like Sears, Circuit City and Ultimate Electronics when it came to selling the median to high end home electronics. Your best deals were found if you were stationed overseas as there was no limit in what AAFES could carry. In the Conus the government prevented AAFES from carrying the top of the line goods from any company. Overseas customers were allowed to buy the flagship a/v receivers and large screen TV's. The conus ones were restricted this because congress wanted to protect ma and pa's appliance store. I believe this restriction has been removed now because of online resources, and the fact that ma and pa and Circuit City and other big box electronics stores are out of business. In the AV department or the "Power Zone," used to be very competitive in similar models sold downtown by the tune of a few hundred dollars in some cases.

Around 2000 AAFES changed its business model a little bit by consolidating what they would carry in stores leaving some items allowed by special order or catalog. Their intent was to try wal mart's model and carry the lower end goods in more bulk hoping they can get a lower price point. They dropped several companies including mine, which was fine because I was going to leave soon since I got scholarship money and no longer required to work for the rest of my school, and I could use the extra time to study.

Unfortunately they still were not able to even dent the amount goods a wal mart purchases. So they made very little margin on what they sold. In some cases they even took a hit on some items. It looks like they have brought back a few higher end goods but they do not overwhelmingly beat out places like Costco. You might find a 20 dollar discount on similar 60 inch samsung flat screen that Costco carries, not making it worth the trip in fuel if you happen to live closer to a costco except maybe the sales tax. For the rest of the stuff unfortunately it's not worth it unless a weekly sale is going on. Of course online has them all beat. The only thing I bought from them recently that was worth the 2 minute extra drive was a vitamix machine that I purchased was 100 less than Costco when they carried it. Both companies can only carry that machine in store on limited basis. Most of the time vitamix prefers to only sell them when they have a demo rep in place during the sale. Never the less BX managed to get them this week without having a floor rep, although we had one snow storm this Friday. Unless they put on a sale they can't really compete as well anymore. It's unfortunate because they used to be a really good deal.

As for customer service. It's hit or miss. The employees do not make much, and have no benefits, unless they are a Red Tag salaried manager. The store I worked at went out of their way to make sure no employee went over a full time week. Paying anyone overtime was a severe penalty to their management. This meant hey had pull from other departments that had no clue about the tv they were trying to sell. Company vendor reps like myself backed them, even helping sell other companies products. Most of us who worked for the vendors had good relationships cross company, so it was easier to sell someone else's stuff if ours was not a good fit. Getting a return or having a pissed pissed off customer was more annoying then losing a sale and we did not make commission. The worst thing AAFES did was to drop vendor floor reps, because we were the knowledge base for what was on that floor. In some stores the higher management did not like the fact that we had control of the inventory that we brought in, so there was always a territorial battle on this. They opted to drop us even though we were a huge value added to them. The BX manager I worked with was pragmatic understood this, but his counterparts at other bases did not see I that way.. Eventually the program was dropped and the BX only sees a vendor on certain occasions when the region rep would come in once in a blue moon or they are launching a local blowout.

To me the only people who benefit the most are the young troop and his star card who can walk across the street buy himself a cheap 40 inch tv and an xbox and lug it BX k to his room.

Base selection, prices are not market competitive (even with tax advantage).

I often relate this story as a joke, but sad fact is that it's true. When stationed overseas you would use AAFES out of necessity and get accustomed to certain products. When a product suddenly was no longer to be found we went to the Exchange manager and asked why. The answer, and this is fact, was: We used to carry that but couldn't keep it in stock, so we stopped ordering it. Somehow that mentality seems to be pervasive throughout AAFES; try as they may, management just doesn't seem to be in touch with the needs and desires of its customers.