Joint Base Andrews, Md. –
As part of the Defense Commissary Agency's ongoing effort to enhance the shopping experience, the Joint Base Andrews Commissary will close early Oct. 21 at 5 p.m., and will be closed through Oct. 23, while it undergoes a store "reset." It will reopen as regularly scheduled, Oct. 24.
A reset is an agency-wide program that systematically changes how products are displayed on shelves throughout a commissary in order to better serve customer shopping patterns. The goal is to give commissaries worldwide a more customer-friendly product flow and layout that is as consistent as possible from location to location.
"We hate to inconvenience our customers with the closure," said Willie E. Yarbrough, DeCA store director. "The process requires us to close the store for a couple of days, in order to tear down the shelving and move it and restock. However, this is something we'll all appreciate when it's done."
Consistency is also part of the reset equation. The reset will enable customers to go to different commissaries and find basically the same layout.
The end result will provide customers with a customer-friendly product flow. For example, dog food will be placed next to pet supplies instead of the charcoal, peanut butter is best found next to the jam, and all cleaning products should be found in the same aisle.
To make changes easier for customers to follow, stores will have aisle layout maps available as well as generic item locators on their store web pages.
"Customers usually like the new layout once they get used to it," said Yarborough. "Sales tend to increase following a store reset. That's an indication that the user-friendly product flow is a good change."
DeCA is intent on making the commissary shopping experience faster and easier; a place to shop every day. One of the priorities is to help busy, active-duty shoppers make a quick run through their commissary and get home more quickly.
"It's a matter of making the commissary layout more sensible by 'resetting' the store," said Yarbrough. The whole idea, in a nutshell, is to make the shopping experience more convenient."
For further information, visit the web site at www.commissaries.com.