Shop or not, commissary wants your views
ARLINGTON, Va. — If you have two minutes on your hands and access to the Internet, the Defense Commissary Agency wants your opinions — and you may win $50 worth of free food for your thoughts.
The Fort Lee, Va.-based agency is trying to figure out why more than 70 percent of younger servicemembers tend not to take advantage of their commissary privileges, which typically save grocery shoppers an average of 30 percent off regular prices, according to Bonnie Powell, DECA’s marketing strategic program manager.
So for the first time, a committee of industry members who supply the agency with products is conducting an online survey of commissary shopping habits and perception of savings.
After the project ends Sept. 30, this “Consumer Awareness Team” will hold a random drawing that will award 250 survey takers with a $50 commissary gift check, according to CAT chairman Steve Lamkin.
DECA already conducts its own official Commissary Customer Satisfaction Surveys twice a year, handing out questionnaires in each of the 280 commissaries in its worldwide chain.
But those surveys, while useful, are missing the “mystery audience” — those active-duty service members who don’t use the commissaries, Powell said in a Wednesday telephone interview.
“Our target right now is to reach out to the E-1s through E-6s,” Powell said. “This seems to be the group least likely to shop [at commissaries] — they don’t seem to realize how much they’re missing out, but we don’t know why.”
Some military members appear unimpressed with commissary choices or don’t believe the products are a good value, Powell said.
“We’re trying to find out if there is a perception that the savings aren’t there and combat that,” Powell said.
Others are uncertain about how their commissary privileges work, Powell said.
“We’ve even had some new [members] tell us they thought they had to be married to use the commissaries,” she said.
But because Defense Department rules prohibit DECA from using any of its profits for advertising and promotions, “We can’t reach people outside the commissary,” to find out why they aren’t using the facilities, Powell said.
That’s where the CAT comes in, said Lamkin, who is also regional director for military sales for Campbell Soup Co., headquartered in Camden, N.J.
The team has existed for more than six years to help DECA research and fund projects to help military servicemembers understand the value of their commissary benefit, Lamkin said Wednesday.
Early this spring, the CAT and DECA marketers decided to work on the “missing member” dilemma by making up the surveys.
The survey includes just six questions, ranging from, “What percentage (off retail) do you feel you save at the commissary?” to, “If you are not a regular commissary shopper, what factor most discourages you?”
The answers, Lamkin hopes, “will give us a better understanding, so we can develop more projects down the road” to increase commissary use.
To kick off the project, members of the American Logistics Agency, a Washington, D.C., group made up largely of DECA suppliers and who sponsors the CAT, donated a host of items to insert into 50,000 “goodie bags.”
The bags include not only a postage-paid survey card, but freebies like a 50-page “easy family meals” cookbook from Campbell’s, a coupon for free coffee, toothpaste, fabric softener and even a $10 phone card. DECA has also included a guide to commissary benefits brochure in the bags.
Since June, the bags have been distributed around the world to military bases, conferences and other events where reservists, National Guard members and young servicemembers congregate.
The bags are not being distributed at commissaries, because “the focus is to get the bags into the hands of the E-1s through E-6s” who are the survey’s target audience, Lamkin said.
People who fill out the survey cards will also be eligible for the $50 gift certificate drawing. So far, the CAT team has received more than 700 survey cards in the mail, “and all of the goodie bags have not even been handed out yet,” Lamkin said.
But the major response has been to the Internet survey, which went online in mid-June and has already received more than 12,000 replies, Powell said.
Lamkin said he plans to present the results of the survey on Oct. 16, during the American Logistics Agency’s annual convention in Atlanta, Ga. DECA will attend the meeting as well, Powell said.
Note: Since the survey is being conducted and funded by private industry, it is not available at commissaries. But any authorized commissary shopper can take the survey online at http://catsurvey.shortsurveys.com .
