The Foreign Service Journal, December 2020

20 DECEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Employee associations are not unlike any other small business in that they must pay constant attention to market conditions and make course corrections as changes occur. overstated. Since the service began, I have seen 50-pound bags of dog food and cases of toilet paper and paper towels—all items people used to need to get from the com- missary—come through on a weekly basis. 3. Frozen Out. Our commissary provided some things that could not be handled through the DPO, primarily frozen and chilled items (as well as the small number of things that are banned in the mailroom). At first we thought we could make enough money on holiday turkeys and hams, along with frozen bagels (it’s still hard to get blueberry bagels here), burritos and really good Marie Callender’s chicken pot pies. But these turned out to be the things we lost the most money on. Our com- missary ordered from Ramstein Air Base (great people, and not at all responsible for our troubles), who marked up about 20 percent to cover their costs. The real kicker, however, was that the chiller unit on the truck added thousands of dollars to the cost to get the food from Ramstein to Denmark. That, on top of our operating costs, meant that the markup went as high as 50 to 60 percent. If we had had a larger operation, the cost of the truck would be spread over a larger order, lowering the cost per item; but we are a medium- sized embassy. The reality is that it was just not possible to get a shipment of frozen items at a price people were will- ing to pay. 4. Amazon Prime. Though it is a little unfair to single out Amazon as the final, and most relevant, reason our commis- sary collapsed, it has had a much larger impact than Walmart, Costco or Target. Just as Amazon has contributed to the loss of many small-town stores, I believe it was instrumental in the closure of our small-town commissary. With new, faster DPO, free second- day shipping and 24-hour internet shopping, it is not inconceivable that you order something Friday night and it arrives at the mailroom the next Friday! As a result of these factors, we were forced to cease commissary opera- tions. At my last two posts, neither of which had a commissary, fellow board members and I struggled to maintain an active employee association. I feel fortunate that in Copenhagen we could retain the cafeteria and dry cleaning, but it was only because we were able to form an active board willing to do a lot of heavy lifting and make tough choices. We will certainly miss the commis- sary. We just might not notice until we need a certain chocolate sprinkle for our daughter’s 7th birthday cake in less than 24 hours. One thing that has made our lives easier, however, was that our assess- ment to the Office of Commissary and Recreation Affairs (also known as Food & Fun) went way down. Records show we used to send thousands of dollars a year to D.C., but last year it was only $900, and this year only $500. By next year we will be a “microassociation,” and the assessment will be even less. Implications for the Future But this brings up a larger problem. While focused on the problem in Copen- hagen, I had not considered the impact of commissary closings on Food & Fun. If commissaries are closing at many posts around the world, or losing sales, what is this doing to the Office of Commissary and Recreation Affairs budget? After all, this office provides central support and oversight of employee associations. In Copenhagen, their sup- port and direction played a critical role in maintaining our association post- commissary. In addition, while it is outside the scope of this article, I do wonder whether annual DPO shipment costs are more, or less, than the department expected when the DPO was introduced. I am very curious to know whether department management sees the DPO as an option that is sustainable in the long term. When I joined State 20 years ago, it was a given that my mail from Seattle to West Africa would be occasional and delayed. But those who have joined the Foreign Service in the last five to 10 years may have much higher expectations for quicker mail service. Ramstein, post management and the Office of Commissary and Recreation Affairs all worked hard with our associa- tion for several years to try to get us onto a sustainable footing. But in the end, systemic changes to the local economy, high costs and customer preferences doomed us. It is Food & Fun’s belief that employee associations are not unlike any other small business, in that they must pay constant attention to market conditions and make course corrections as changes occur. (The framed memo from M dated 1958 stating that we were authorized to keep the commissary