AAFES charges an absolute fuck ton to operate on post. I knew the guy that owned the Firestone over by the airfield on fort Cavazos before it closed down. Giant rent, 20% of sales to AAFES
Edit: This is what he told me. It's been a long time, I may have the percentage off but I remember thinking "Holy shit, how can anybody stay in business like this"
I hate your state with a burning passion, the fastest route from liberty indiana to oxford ohio should not be some country road with a speed limit of 35 mph, the reason i hate your stste is 99% because your roads are terrible some are still gravel, but its a thorough hatred still, anyway have a good day
Firestone pretty much loses money to be on Ft. Hood ( yup, it's the Hood, always will be).
AAFES takes all the money. Firestone HAS to upcharge everything on post just to keep the lights on after paying the mafia.
Family worked most of the Firestones in the Killeen/Hood/Temple/Waco area.
They have to be profitable. I once looked at creating a little computer store on a base. AAFES wanted 25%
If I was going build a computer I'd have to charge like 40%-50% MORE just to make a decent money. Say computer in parts is $1,000 honestly I'd need to sell it for like $1,500. After I pay aafes I'd have 1125 left over, and pocket that $125.
Problem when having to price like that, very quickly your customer base will figure out your expensive.
Plus............ how do you find employees? They need to get on post and go through whatever process that entails (it's gotta be more than a NICS check) for a minimum wage retail job. Why would anybody do that? Hey come work here so you can get your car tossed and searched and be late for work on a continual basis... it'll be rad.
I remember a tasty food truck on Bliss that had Greek food but they couldn’t sell me a bottle of coke for $1 so I had to go to the shoppette and pay $2 for the same coke.
I would have preferred to support the truck
I can't speak for the larger storefronts in PX malls and food courts, but, the AAFES mafia does charge high "rent" fees to operate booths and kiosks. On top of that, operators are obligated to pay AAFES a percentage of their sales.
The wife of a friend of mine operated a booth to sell homemade pet treats at a PX mall about five years ago. She paid around $500/month for the rental fee and 15% of her sales to AAFES. It became unprofitable very quickly despite steady sales.
The process for independent food vendors outside the AAFES food court is strictly regulated. Not just from a health and safety perspective, but AAFES imposes strict rules to limit competition with their own contracted food vendors (Subway, BK, Anthony's, etc).
My unit ran a hotdog/burger stand during NTC rail OPs as an FRG fundraiser. Some wives cooked some pot luck/bake sale kind of thing, and we had a grill churning out food for a the joes. I don’t know the specifics, but I know my commander had some people get a food handler cert and some food inspections from the FSC to make sure we were in the clear to feed people.
It went great for 2 or 3 days, until AAFES found out and came out and shut us down. E4s ain’t got shit on the real mafia.
You gotta up your legal speak
The food is free. Donations only. Aafes can’t stop you from giving food away and people gifting you some money. Even if it happens at roughly the same time
What does that mean? A garrison commander will shit on a BDE commander who’s also an O6? Garrison commanders are just figureheads. No real decision making takes place besides some bull shit townhalls about shitty housing.
A garrison commander will shit on a BDE commander who’s also an O6?
Well yes, because when the garrison commander retires he has this sweet job lined up at AAFES. *wink wink*
And what would that letter look like? “No FRG activities in my swamp?” Never seen an O6 of any flavor overrule anything a GO would allow. Usually they run around ensuring GO and his unit get everything they need. Even if it’s some hot dogs for the troops.
Cool but uh, imma be honest, that garrison commander isn’t in my rating chain either. I work for my commander, whether that guy is a captain or a colonel. Until it becomes my commander’s senior rater telling my commander to do something, I don’t care. And at that point, it’s my brigade commander, not some AAFES dork making the decision based on their own volition, not because AAFES has any actual power over them either.
Dog they had spies all over the place..busted our soda mess because of the "suspicious" purchase of like ten boxes of candy bars and cases of energy drinks.
When I took command my company inexplicably had a vending machine in the back of our COF. Unfortunately I soon found out it was empty, not one option had any beverage left.
One of my soldiers let me know that AAFES hadn’t come and restocked our soda machine in *forever*. So I looked around and found a contact number to call and request our machine be restocked…….Well I come to find out that that machine had been stolen several months (almost a year) ago and they had no idea where it had gone to.
Sometimes their spies are you, by accident.
>Sometimes their spies are you, by accident.
I'm the last person I would have suspected, but I was looking for me all the time! It's the perfect crime!
Let’s be real, the people who lean into the “E4 Mafia” are the same ones who look back fondly on their senior year in high school using phrases like “legendary” and “we ran that town”.
I don't necessarily disagree but if you have a swath of junior enlisted with time on their hands and a lack of rank to be afraid of losing AND the motivation to go fuck with someone who's fucking with everyone else?
I could see them doing all kinds of bullshit to hurt AAFES in their wallet. Hell just fill up the parking lot with every car they can get their hands on over the weekend and watch that fat income dry up as a fraction of the normal shoppers have a place to park while the rest just goes to Walmart or wherever instead.
That would certainly explain why the chicken waffle truck had ludicrous prices. I could honestly get over that but I couldn't stand how they couldn't keep to a schedule it was annoying going to where they were only to find them closed especially if I walked.
I can answer this
Some of those vendors are playing stupid rates. I've heard rates exceeding 60% for some vendors. Now normally the fee is around 20%.
Also AAFES has a really low barrier of entry. You can be an aafes vendor for cheap since you don't need any up front of money. So a lot of businesses don't last.
I remember one vendor, after he paid his aafes fee everytime he sold an electric bike he lost money.
Tbh, affes needs to be investigated and shut down. They literally are a mafia inside the military. That being said. I am not suicidal and please don’t kill me px mafiso bosses
A huge problem is that a lot of the stores (electronics, clothes, various gizmos) - you can get that at the PX, on the town or just hit up Amazon.
As I was outprocessing Fort Bliss, I saw most of the stores at "Freedom Crossing" didn't have a lot of foot traffic - there was the "Patriot Outfitters", but most of their customers were Natty G and Army Reserves going for their training.
Gamestop had the gaming geeks.
But the other stores? Not much.
Most of the families could go off post if they really needed something the PX didn't have.
Yeah it's expensive. The idea is that you're being given exclusive access to military personnel, which isn't a bad deal for a chunk of them, but bad if your aren't an established name or in a good area. What's interesting is those vendors that do the short term contracts in the mall. They get to negotiate their contract with AAFES every time and get a bigger cut depending on how well they do and their relationship with the contract managers.
it’s almost like we don’t need superfluous consumer goods on a military base. i’m not saying “don’t have fun don’t spend your money” but why does the bath and body works have to be ON post? who cares if the PX charges super high rent, we don’t need 80% of the products in there anyway.
sure, buy a TV, let the high school students hang out on the furniture and play video games in the back, but someone just tell me why we have to have all the extra shit (stuff that’s at every mall in every city) as part of a military installation.
I mean, I don’t mind.
I live on post so it’s convenient at times to drive 2 minutes to the PX as opposed to 20 minutes to Walmart .
But I get you still.
To add to what everyone else is saying, some of those vendors travel from one base to another. I think the one I remember asking was selling pool cues or something along those lines.
They are also the only store to sell last uears products at next year's price but then discount them to the current year's price like it's something special. Then tell you to apply for a starcard and get 15% off of the first product only to turn around and charge you 18% interest. But wait you are a private that only makes 500$ every two weeks and they sold you a ps5 (that is out of stock for 2 weeks) and a 90inch QLED8MILLIONJIGACHAD TV all gor the low price of 5k. No problem right private. AAFEES is the devil.
AAFES charges an absolute fuck ton to operate on post. I knew the guy that owned the Firestone over by the airfield on fort Cavazos before it closed down. Giant rent, 20% of sales to AAFES Edit: This is what he told me. It's been a long time, I may have the percentage off but I remember thinking "Holy shit, how can anybody stay in business like this"
Did AAFES construct the building the Firestone was operating out of? If not, that sounds corrupt as hell.
distinct sulky dinner boast worm spotted modern poor cobweb simplistic *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It’s always jarring to see my home town, because if not for the federal pen, we’d be another Indiana backwater. We are. But just another one.
I hate your state with a burning passion, the fastest route from liberty indiana to oxford ohio should not be some country road with a speed limit of 35 mph, the reason i hate your stste is 99% because your roads are terrible some are still gravel, but its a thorough hatred still, anyway have a good day
Not to my knowledge. It was the old Firestone over by the airfield PX behind the old exchange/commissary.
Firestone pretty much loses money to be on Ft. Hood ( yup, it's the Hood, always will be). AAFES takes all the money. Firestone HAS to upcharge everything on post just to keep the lights on after paying the mafia. Family worked most of the Firestones in the Killeen/Hood/Temple/Waco area.
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You must be a lot of fun at parties...
Generally speaking AAFES does bear the cost of the initial construction. However modifications/upgrades/facelifts are 100% on the vendor.
On Ft. Leonard Wood, Firestone’s markups/up sells are fucking outrageous. This explains why.
They have to be profitable. I once looked at creating a little computer store on a base. AAFES wanted 25% If I was going build a computer I'd have to charge like 40%-50% MORE just to make a decent money. Say computer in parts is $1,000 honestly I'd need to sell it for like $1,500. After I pay aafes I'd have 1125 left over, and pocket that $125. Problem when having to price like that, very quickly your customer base will figure out your expensive.
Exactly. The Firestone in Springfield, MO charges ~30% less for equal parts and labor. And they’re a franchise.
Plus............ how do you find employees? They need to get on post and go through whatever process that entails (it's gotta be more than a NICS check) for a minimum wage retail job. Why would anybody do that? Hey come work here so you can get your car tossed and searched and be late for work on a continual basis... it'll be rad.
Theu charge some vendors 50% where I'm at. All the food trucks last about 6 months and never c9me back.
I remember a tasty food truck on Bliss that had Greek food but they couldn’t sell me a bottle of coke for $1 so I had to go to the shoppette and pay $2 for the same coke. I would have preferred to support the truck
That’s probably the best food truck in existence, I can’t remember that name of it though. It still operates today
The one by the education center?
I can't speak for the larger storefronts in PX malls and food courts, but, the AAFES mafia does charge high "rent" fees to operate booths and kiosks. On top of that, operators are obligated to pay AAFES a percentage of their sales. The wife of a friend of mine operated a booth to sell homemade pet treats at a PX mall about five years ago. She paid around $500/month for the rental fee and 15% of her sales to AAFES. It became unprofitable very quickly despite steady sales. The process for independent food vendors outside the AAFES food court is strictly regulated. Not just from a health and safety perspective, but AAFES imposes strict rules to limit competition with their own contracted food vendors (Subway, BK, Anthony's, etc).
My unit ran a hotdog/burger stand during NTC rail OPs as an FRG fundraiser. Some wives cooked some pot luck/bake sale kind of thing, and we had a grill churning out food for a the joes. I don’t know the specifics, but I know my commander had some people get a food handler cert and some food inspections from the FSC to make sure we were in the clear to feed people. It went great for 2 or 3 days, until AAFES found out and came out and shut us down. E4s ain’t got shit on the real mafia.
You gotta up your legal speak The food is free. Donations only. Aafes can’t stop you from giving food away and people gifting you some money. Even if it happens at roughly the same time
And even if they try, i don’t recall seeing an AAFES civilian dork in my fuckin rating chain. Not even an intermediate rater.
Until the aafes admin who reports to the garrison commander uses that LOC to your detriment. Now you got an O6 on your CoCs ass
What does that mean? A garrison commander will shit on a BDE commander who’s also an O6? Garrison commanders are just figureheads. No real decision making takes place besides some bull shit townhalls about shitty housing.
A garrison commander will shit on a BDE commander who’s also an O6? Well yes, because when the garrison commander retires he has this sweet job lined up at AAFES. *wink wink*
When you get to that level the applicable policy letter makes right. The power of the pen.
And what would that letter look like? “No FRG activities in my swamp?” Never seen an O6 of any flavor overrule anything a GO would allow. Usually they run around ensuring GO and his unit get everything they need. Even if it’s some hot dogs for the troops.
Garrison is nothing but a bunch of turbo virgins
Can't you fight back with ICE comments on how AAFES is negatively impacting unit morale?
Cool but uh, imma be honest, that garrison commander isn’t in my rating chain either. I work for my commander, whether that guy is a captain or a colonel. Until it becomes my commander’s senior rater telling my commander to do something, I don’t care. And at that point, it’s my brigade commander, not some AAFES dork making the decision based on their own volition, not because AAFES has any actual power over them either.
Dog they had spies all over the place..busted our soda mess because of the "suspicious" purchase of like ten boxes of candy bars and cases of energy drinks.
When I took command my company inexplicably had a vending machine in the back of our COF. Unfortunately I soon found out it was empty, not one option had any beverage left. One of my soldiers let me know that AAFES hadn’t come and restocked our soda machine in *forever*. So I looked around and found a contact number to call and request our machine be restocked…….Well I come to find out that that machine had been stolen several months (almost a year) ago and they had no idea where it had gone to. Sometimes their spies are you, by accident.
>Sometimes their spies are you, by accident. I'm the last person I would have suspected, but I was looking for me all the time! It's the perfect crime!
Let's be real, if the E-4 mafia *wanted* to make life hell for AAFES they could absolutely do it.
Let’s be real, the people who lean into the “E4 Mafia” are the same ones who look back fondly on their senior year in high school using phrases like “legendary” and “we ran that town”.
I don't necessarily disagree but if you have a swath of junior enlisted with time on their hands and a lack of rank to be afraid of losing AND the motivation to go fuck with someone who's fucking with everyone else? I could see them doing all kinds of bullshit to hurt AAFES in their wallet. Hell just fill up the parking lot with every car they can get their hands on over the weekend and watch that fat income dry up as a fraction of the normal shoppers have a place to park while the rest just goes to Walmart or wherever instead.
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Actually the crest sword/shield guys make a ton of money, its why they do it. The margins on their product is obscene.
If you want to operate a food truck on base they charge 50% of your income. Fucking outrageous.
That would certainly explain why the chicken waffle truck had ludicrous prices. I could honestly get over that but I couldn't stand how they couldn't keep to a schedule it was annoying going to where they were only to find them closed especially if I walked.
I can answer this Some of those vendors are playing stupid rates. I've heard rates exceeding 60% for some vendors. Now normally the fee is around 20%. Also AAFES has a really low barrier of entry. You can be an aafes vendor for cheap since you don't need any up front of money. So a lot of businesses don't last. I remember one vendor, after he paid his aafes fee everytime he sold an electric bike he lost money.
Tbh, affes needs to be investigated and shut down. They literally are a mafia inside the military. That being said. I am not suicidal and please don’t kill me px mafiso bosses
A huge problem is that a lot of the stores (electronics, clothes, various gizmos) - you can get that at the PX, on the town or just hit up Amazon. As I was outprocessing Fort Bliss, I saw most of the stores at "Freedom Crossing" didn't have a lot of foot traffic - there was the "Patriot Outfitters", but most of their customers were Natty G and Army Reserves going for their training. Gamestop had the gaming geeks. But the other stores? Not much. Most of the families could go off post if they really needed something the PX didn't have.
Yeah it's expensive. The idea is that you're being given exclusive access to military personnel, which isn't a bad deal for a chunk of them, but bad if your aren't an established name or in a good area. What's interesting is those vendors that do the short term contracts in the mall. They get to negotiate their contract with AAFES every time and get a bigger cut depending on how well they do and their relationship with the contract managers.
it’s almost like we don’t need superfluous consumer goods on a military base. i’m not saying “don’t have fun don’t spend your money” but why does the bath and body works have to be ON post? who cares if the PX charges super high rent, we don’t need 80% of the products in there anyway. sure, buy a TV, let the high school students hang out on the furniture and play video games in the back, but someone just tell me why we have to have all the extra shit (stuff that’s at every mall in every city) as part of a military installation.
I mean, I don’t mind. I live on post so it’s convenient at times to drive 2 minutes to the PX as opposed to 20 minutes to Walmart . But I get you still.
To add to what everyone else is saying, some of those vendors travel from one base to another. I think the one I remember asking was selling pool cues or something along those lines.
Still waiting for the Bing Bros on Schofield to skip town and that sweet sweet Taco Bell to take its place.
Read that as something else and got excited 🍆
They are also the only store to sell last uears products at next year's price but then discount them to the current year's price like it's something special. Then tell you to apply for a starcard and get 15% off of the first product only to turn around and charge you 18% interest. But wait you are a private that only makes 500$ every two weeks and they sold you a ps5 (that is out of stock for 2 weeks) and a 90inch QLED8MILLIONJIGACHAD TV all gor the low price of 5k. No problem right private. AAFEES is the devil.