Issues Addressed by the Armed Forces Marketing Council
Current Issues
The Military Resale System and Quality of Life Benefits are currently in a period of transition due to budgetary constraints, shifting patron demographics, and a dynamic, highly-competitive retail environment. The Armed Forces Marketing Council believes the military resale system needs the flexibility and agility to shift to meet patron needs and demand and be more convenient while providing a high-quality, word-class quality of life benefit that supports readiness, retention, resiliency and recruitment. Specifically, the Armed Forces Marketing Council supports the following initiatives:
- Opposing exclusions in commissaries and exchanges of widely-available products commonly found at off-base retailers.
- Armed Services Exchange Regulations should be reviewed and updated to reflect the current retail environment while offering commissaries and exchanges broader product assortment to meet patron demand in a convenient manner.
- Consideration should be given to returning to groceries (food and household items, baby and healthcare items, etc.) at cost, while maintaining a variable pricing model for all other categories and to allow for "loss leaders."
- Military resale offers the Department of Defense and the military services options to better support the delivery of other on-base services in the retail space, such as prescription drugs, passes and IDs. By better utilizing resale assets on base, capitalization and maintenance costs could be reduced for other agencies and services, improve the on-base community experience for service members and their families, and strengthen the military resale benefit.
Other issues
The Armed Forces Marketing Council, since its inception, has addressed many issues over the years.
- Commissary Funding
- Military Resale Reform
- Consolidation of the resale/exchange systems
- Second Destination Transportation Funding
- Online shopping benefits
- Use of credit cards in the commissaries and exchanges
- Guard and Reserve Privileges
- Armed Services Exchange Regulation Relief
- Many others