Sakowitz, second from left, and Command Sgt. Maj. Victor Garcia talk to Airman 1st Class Joshua Titus, right, and his wife, Brittany, as they shop in Kaiserslautern, Germany’s Vogelweh commissary with their son, Dakota. (Photos by Michael Abrams/S&S)
Sakowitz, second from left, and Command Sgt. Maj. Victor Garcia talk to Airman 1st Class Joshua Titus, right, and his wife, Brittany, as they shop in Kaiserslautern, Germany’s Vogelweh commissary with their son, Dakota. (Photos by Michael Abrams/S&S)
Defense Commissary Agency director Philip Sakowitz Jr. makes a commercial with AFN’s Jerry Cormier in Kaiserslautern, Germany’s Vogelweh commissary on Thursday. ()
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Compared to their stateside counterparts, commissary patrons are exemplary at making shopping lists, managing the pantry, asking family members for edible ideas and clipping coupons.
They also use self-checkout stations at more than twice the rate stateside shoppers do, according Philip E. Sakowitz Jr., the director of the Defense Commissary Agency, citing industry surveys.
In December, 28 percent of all DeCA store transactions were done through self-checking, the agency says. Twenty-one percent were done that way in Mannheim, Germany, and 63 percent at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart.
A new state-of-the-art system should keep that trend going.
"We’re getting visited by other grocery chains," Sakowitz said. "Self-checkout is a new concept. It’s beneficial and people want it. It’s the way of the world."
Sakowitz and a small entourage of staff members from DeCA headquarters at Fort Lee, Va., spent last week scanning commissary operations in Europe. The region, which includes part of the Middle East, has 47 stores in 10 countries, though Sakowitz spent his entire time in Germany.
Seven months into the job, the 55-year-old director sat down with Stars and Stripes to discuss what was on the horizon for commissary shoppers.
"If you want to see the future of commissaries, go to Grafenwöhr," Sakowitz said.
The $14.2 million Grafenwöhr supermarket, which opened in September 2007, offers about 10,000 different products in an area that is more than four times the size of the old commissary. It’s spacious, high-tech and in a community shopping mall with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service.
New high-tech commissaries are due to come on line this year at Chievres Air Base in Belgium and at Camp Darby in Livorno, Italy. Neither will be as large as the store in Grafenwöhr.
At least three other projects, all in Germany, are working their way through the approval and funding process. In each case, significant issues remain unresolved.
Two of the three stores on the drafting board are destined for Katterbach Casern in Ansbach and Spangdahlem Air Base. Each will be well-equipped, so the overriding question is not one of function but funding.
In a memorandum last month, the Defense Department, after months of study, clarified its policy on the use of funds for commissary construction. Caught up in the review process were the projects for Ansbach and Spangdahlem.
Sakowitz said congressional leaders worried the services were using non-appropriated and surcharge funding on projects that perhaps should be funded by the Military Construction program, which allows for greater oversight.
Sakowitz believes the funding issues will be resolved in a few months.
"I don’t want this to linger," Sakowitz said of the funding issues for the two proposed commissaries. "We don’t want to [negatively] impact our customers."
The father of all future projects is the Ram-stein commissary.
Currently, the plan is to renovate and expand the existing facility by about 2012, Sakowitz said. That project is estimated to cost $32 million, partly because of the need to erect temporary hardened tents while the existing facility gets its face-lift.
"This is one store you can’t do in phases," said Thomas E. Milks, head of DeCA-Europe.
The renovation project was approved by DeCA’s board of directors but is now being reconsidered. Community and commissary officials prefer to have a new commissary built for $40 million to $45 million instead. The favored site is a wooded area at Kisling Memorial Drive and Maxwell Avenue, not far from the existing facility.
Taking into account both cost estimates, normally the decision would be to go with a new store. But local German leaders, Sakowitz said, are not on board due to past concerns.
The removal of trees is "one of the issues," Sakowitz said. "We have to decide something before the summer."
From a sales standpoint, DeCA had a bustling year in fiscal 2008.
The agency’s 254 commissaries registered $5.8 billion in sales, an increase of $270 million, or 5 percent, compared to the previous year, Sakowitz said. And for October and November 2008, the first two months of fiscal year 2009, sales are up $92 million.
"We’re rockin’," Sakowitz said. "Our business is going nuts."
