OffAviation topic...

We had a great little snackbar with all kinds of sandwiches, cakes, candy, chips, drinks, subs, etc. It made enough money that we never got hit up for dues, never had to pitch in for going-away plaques, and had a great Christmas party last year, FREE.

Last week, the AAFES boss got pissed that we were making money, and he was not. So he got legal involved....long story short, we were ordered to shut everything down. I'm sure the expenses will remain (going-away gifts, Christmas party, etc.) but the income will now be painful...dues, etc.

NOW THE POINT: I know there are regs on this, and legal issues that MUST be adhered to. My question is: Has anyone found a LEGAL end-around to this?

AAFES "graciously" offered to put in machines. This will provide the products, but the prices will be higher, and NONE of the money will go to the squadron. Lose-Lose.

AAFES will not let us buy from them and resell for squadron profit.

I can't believe the once/twice a year fundraiser carwash/bake sale would come near to providing the required funds.

Any LEGAL alternatives?

We had an almost exactly the same situation here a couple years ago. A whole bunch of chiefs and majors got involved trying to figure a way around it as well. Long story short we now have an AAFES flight line kitchen to "serve" us. Jerks. Good luck. If you find a loop-hole share the info please!

Same thing happened to the snackos when I was at Columbus. They were raking in big cash until the a$$holes at AAFES found out about it and shut them down. We never found a way around it.

Not sure if it is a loophole, but most squadrons have a snacko that sell patches, coins, prints, shotglasses, etc to generate some funds. I know Gill Howie of Squadron Prints if you are interested in selling her prints. They are the best out there (IMHO) and Gill's a sweetheart to deal with, but she's dating a Dutch Viper driver so don't get any ideas! Most of the other stuff comes from Korea or Turkey, some of the older guys in your squadron probably know someone in one of those countries.

AAFES will not let us buy from them and resell for squadron profit.

Something else to remember is that the commissary is a different animal, run by an organization called DECA. They are not AAFES and it is where we buy all the goodies for our snacko. No one at DECA has come down on us about it, and it is pretty obvious when a major and a captain buy four carts full of sodas and munchies.

AAFES has always been assholes about snackos, don't know why because lots of times they make their profit off the initial sale. I ain't no JAG officer (thank God!), but if it goes real ugly then have the squadron wives (oops, should I say "spouses") run it. What is AAFES going to do to them?

Of course none of the above is guaranteed to work, I would advise trying to find a halfway cool JAG officer (good luck), especially one who doesn’t like AAFES, who could maybe help. Nothing like fighting fire with fire!

Good luck, let us know how it works out!

Cheers! M2

Hey Toro...remember when this happened to us at SJ?

We just moved the snack bar into a cubicle around the corner out of sight...After they figure out their fancy machines aren't making any money they will pull 'em and you then return to normal ops. It sounds like a sneaky back handed way of dealing with it, but whose AF is this anyway? It sure as hell don't belong to services, AAFFES, or DECA.

It sure as hell don't belong to services, AAFFES, or DECA.

Oh yes it does...

"AAFES: A part of your benefits, a part of your life!"

My A$$

PD

[ 24 March 2004, 21:39: Message edited by: PegDriver24 ]

Originally posted by Animal:

Hey Toro...remember when this happened to us at SJ?

Which squadron? Prancers?

Originally posted by MajorMadMax:

Not sure if it is a loophole, but most squadrons have a snacko that sell patches, coins, prints, shotglasses, etc to generate some funds

That's totally different. AAFES doesn't care about those kinds of items because they don't sell them, so you're not drawing funds away from them.

Originally posted by Animal:

Hey Toro...remember when this happened to us at SJ?

Now I do - Columbus and SJ just sort of blended together in my hazed memory. That was pretty obvious to them because they had two snack machines sitting right next to where we set up our snack bar. All of a sudden we're raking in the dough and they don't get a single coin dropped in their machines. They stopped complaining when the snack bar was out of sight, despite the fact that nobody was buying candy still.

Originally posted by Hacker:

Which squadron? Prancers?

Yup

At Ramstein we had a contest for a new AAFES slogan. Some of the entries were pretty funny, such as "AAFES will be closed on Monday to better serve you," but the winner was a hoot..."AAFES - Serves You Right!"

I don't think I've been to a squadron, office, etc that doesn't have some sort of snacko going on, it is just a matter of keeping it under AAFES' scope. I can't believe that organization has a MG "commanding" it! I have never seen such a self-licking ice cream cone in my life! Time to outsource the exchanges to WalMart or Target!

Cheers! M2

I'd prefer Sam's club Mr. Max(a WalMart establishment, but better) and then we can really rake in the pallets of food items. Don't think we need any help here getting Round(elastic belt) feeding our faces while AETC tries to stuff doctrine thru our optical receptors and into our memory banks....Flush, well except for the good videos/strategy/historical heroes! Pass me those twinkies, is it 4:30? Hand me that Samuel Adams!

I've heard of people getting around this issue by saying they have people working in the building around the clock and AAFES run food joints on base aren't open 24/7, so that is how they got around having a snack bar. Not sure how they got around the point of putting vending machines in, that poses another problem.

Of course there is an AAFES run food joint run downstairs here at ACSC, but each floor housing a total of four divisions feeding 600 beat-down Majors,(not including faculty)has a snack bar itself. Just got done playing CINC SNACKO last week restocking it for an hour and half.... It's supported by SAM's Club pallet size morsels and Commissary grub... So far no complaints...but then again, the General can be found roaming in the food closets as well. The faculty makes a crapola of cha ching on grilling burgers and dogs here every 2 weeks = lots of BMWs, and Benz around here...hmmmm.

I think I would overcome the problem by offering a "free snack bar" and have a plaque/award donation bucket nearby. Of course anybody not donating the "correct" amount would be made to lick the urinals clean.

AirGuardian, why all the no-caffine stuff in the middle of this stupid exercise? A thankless job, but we were cursing you late yesterday afternoon when our only source of caffine was Lipton Iced Tea.

Remind me again why I stopped flying to come to ACSC?

Lipton Iced Tea, brought to you by the good people at AAFES.

Which squadron? Prancers?

Oh come on Hacker (or should I say Caged), once a Lancer always a Lancer...Nice class photo with the Red Dawg by the way...no assigned WSO?

You sure you want a aaeffes mACHINE IN YOUR SHOP?!!!!! you heard about the vending machine in Okinawa right?

Vanchi, Hadn't heard about the vending machine in question... mind fillin' us in?

One of the AAFES vending machines on Camp Foster PX exploded. Had the OSI boys foaming at the mouth...think it turned out to be a faulty compressor or something like that. That sent out emails not to go near AAFES vending machines...yeah, like I would anyways...

AAFES - Asian American Female Employment Services

Heard something similar to what 123abc wrote from a LTC in my squadron. A similar thing happen to his old squadron with a flight line lunch shack. The number he used was $1500 and they would buy their squadron hats and shirts with the profits anytime it was time to restock. Hearing this story and the fact that 123abc is a former snacko...I would have to say that he is on to something...

We put everyone on the "Donation" plan and it seemed to work well for us at the Guard unit. Those jackasses at AAFES tried to put us out of business, but we haven't heard anything since we started accepting "donations".

Man, that would piss me off to no end. I would do the around the corner thing, and THW AAFES.

Sounds like AAFES is way outta line. Did base legal go to bat for you?

Mambo, I like that acronym...haven't heard that one before...