The Foreign Service Journal, December 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2020 19 SPEAKING OUT Food & Fun, or Debt & Despair? The Commissary Crisis and the Future of Employee Associations BY L LYWE LYN GRAEME D uring 20 years in the Foreign Service I have had a variety of commissary experiences at dif- ferent posts. Many (Abuja 2000, Wellington 2006, Dili 2014, Nicosia 2017) had no commissary at all; Lagos had a commissary and even a boat you could use as a taxi to and from work; two posts had vibrant and highly useful commis- saries (Beijing 2004 and Kyiv 2010). These and other commissaries around the world provide access to goods, and sometimes services, that are difficult or impossible to obtain at post— USPS stamps, Halloween candy, peanut butter, Comet cleanser, and the like. The commissaries are operated by employee associations, volun- teer groups of employees who come together to improve morale and provide whatever the membership needs or wants. Some associations have rental cars, others a gym or apartments for rent; some manage onsite cafeterias or gyms at the embassy or consulate. Associations can be a powerful tool to improve life overseas. Here in Copenhagen, as president of the 70-member American Embassy Employee Association (AEEA) I have had the painful responsibility of closing our commissary. We were losing money every month, and if it had continued, we would have lost the entire associa- tion and, with it, our reasonably priced cafeteria option. Given that the nearest restaurant sells $24 hamburgers, we need the cafeteria for reasons of morale. Elsewhere, I have heard that Embassy Stockholm lost its commissary and pos- sibly the association. Our embassy in neighboring Oslo has an active commis- sary; however, I understand that liquor prices there are quite high (whereas liquor prices in Denmark are quite reasonable—we are the home of Peter Justesen, after all). Why are commissaries, and the employee associations that run them, under pressure? Is their eventual extinc- tion inevitable? Here are some insights and suggestions based on our experience in Denmark. While it is, of course, unique to our time and place, I want to share this with the Foreign Service community as a cautionary tale. Though we were unable to salvage the commissary, we were able to maintain our employee association, with a positive cash flow. Admittedly, it is only hundreds of dollars a year, but at least we are no longer losing thousands a month. And, had we acted sooner, we might be in an even better position today. What to Do? In 2018, to determine what to do about the commissary, we AEEA board members thoroughly reviewed our finan- cial situation, the number of employees, sales and costs. It turned out that com- missary sales had been declining for at least the last three years. We identified four primary reasons for lower sales. 1. Changes in the Danish Economy. In the 1990s American food was rarely available in Denmark except in extremely pricey specialty stores. But starting about 2010, the larger grocery stores added spe- cialty aisles: “Asian food,” “Mexican food” and even “American food.” Of course, much of what we consider American is found in the other aisles: tortillas and salsa in the Mexican, soy and sweet and sour in the Asian, and so on. Further, because Denmark’s economy is only now climbing out of the 2008 Great Recession, meat prices in stores are comparable to those in the United States (though restaurant prices remain very high). 2. Diplomatic Post Office. The DPO was started in 2003 and has rapidly spread throughout the world. DPO costs are lower for the department than the Diplomatic Pouch, and you can send liquids and small knives and can easily return items (among many other advan- tages for employees). Where once you had to carefully hus- band your small stock of dark molasses, you can now get it shipped to you from the United States any time you want! The ease and speed of using DPO cannot be Llywelyn Graeme joined the Foreign Service in 2000 as a State Department office manager. He was previously a radio DJ on two conti- nents; a member of the Federation of Radio & TV Actors and the stage hands union, responsible for the Star Wars fan club, Wizards of the Coast Pokémon team, Nintendo Super-Agent; and also worked at Microsoft, Nordstrom’s and the Starbucks roasting plant. He is featured in the 2005 edition of Inside a U.S. Embassy.