by Leslie Brown
Defense Commissary Agency Public Affairs for Europe Area
11/30/2011 - FORT LEE, Va. (AFNS) -- Defense Commissary Agency officials have announced the end of magazine sales in their overseas stores beginning January 2012.
This policy affects all commissaries in Europe, the Pacific (Japan, Okinawa, South Korea and Guam) and Puerto Rico.
DeCA will continue to sell the Stars & Stripes newspaper since it is printed in theater. Commissaries in Alaska and Hawaii are not affected by this sales change. Magazines will also continue to be available in military exchanges and bookstores located near most overseas commissaries.
"With the rising costs in transportation and declining sales, the decision was made to end the sale of magazines in our stores in Europe and the Pacific," said Chris Burns, the director of sales. "We have to be fiscally responsible with our taxpayer-provided resources, and this is one way we can do that."
Before deciding to cease magazine sales overseas, DeCA officials had tried other options such as deleting slow-selling titles and reducing the volume of magazines shipped to overseas stores. However, the negative sales trend didn't change.
"The decision to eliminate magazine sales overseas was not an easy one, but a decision that had to be made in our fiscally constrained environment," Burns said. "The contract for selling magazines in the overseas stores ends in fiscal 2012, so this is the proper time to make this change.
"By eliminating the logistical costs of airlifting magazines to overseas distribution centers, we're able to keep other important products flowing to our store shelves," Burns said.
