DeCA announces best commissary winners

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FORT LEE, Va. (AFNS) --  Five commissaries were honored as the Defense Commissary Agency's best during the DeCA's 2009 Conference and Training Event in Richmond, Va., May 19. Winning commissaries by category for the competition were:

      Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., winner of the Bill Nichols Award for the Best Large Commissary in the United States; 

      Columbus AFB, Miss., winner of the Richard M. Paget Award for the Best Small Commissary in the United States;
 
      U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr, Germany, winner of the Dan Daniel Award for the Best Large Commissary Overseas;
 
      Camp Stanley, South Korea, winner of the L. Mendel Rivers Award for the Best Small Commissary Overseas; and
 
      Tinker AFB, Okla., winner of the Director's Award for the Best Superstore.
 
"When we acknowledge our best it sets a standard across the agency that raises the bar for all our stores," said Philip E. Sakowitz Jr., DeCA director and CEO. "These awards validate the excellence of our employees and industry partners as they deliver a world class benefit to our most deserving customers."

Runners-up, honorable mentions and noteworthy performers were:

      Nichols Award Runner-up: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. 

      Paget Award Runner-up: Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, Va. 

      Daniel Award Runner-up: U.S. Army Garrison Schinnen, Netherlands. 

      Rivers Award Runner-up: Camp Zama, Japan. 

      Director's Award Runner-up: Fort Eustis, Va. 

Overseas commissary honorable mention award winners: 

      Daniel Award - U.S. Army Garrison Schweinfurt and Ramstein Air Base, Germany; and Aviano AB, Italy; 

      Rivers Award - Camp Carroll, South Korea; Cairo, Egypt; and Livorno, Italy. 

      Honorable mention award winners for the Continental United States: 

      Nichols Award - Norfolk Naval Shipyard Portsmouth, Va.; Charleston AFB, S.C.; and Naval Submarine Base Bangor, Wash.; 

      Paget Award - Naval Construction Battalion Center, Gulfport, Miss.; Vance AFB, Okla.; and Goodfellow AFB, Texas; 

    Director's Award - Naval Base San Diego, Calif.; Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and Fort Bragg South, N.C. 

Winning stores are evaluated in four areas: accountability, unit cost, commissary customer service survey and sales. Under accountability, all departments in the store -- meat, grocery and produce -- must be accountable for their physical inventory during fiscal 2008. For unit cost, a store's annual operating expenses must meet or come in below the average of previous years. Under the commissary customer service survey criteria, the store must exceed the DeCA average or the average for its sales category. And under sales, stores in the continental United States must show a positive sales growth averaging fiscal 2008 with previous years' sales.

DeCA's Best Commissary awards recognize overall excellence in commissary operations and service. The awards are named in honor of legislators who protected the commissary benefit and championed quality-of-life issues for the military and their families.