Disappointed in NEX

[insanebikerboy]

I've been overseas for awhile but I back in Hawaii right now and you can't buy any alcohol here after 2200 from any NEX/Mini-mart/etc. Is that the new norm for the NEX or is it just a Hawaii thing? Needless to say with the time difference I'm wide awake at midnight and wanted a beer. Oh well!

 

[helolumpy]

I've been overseas for awhile but I back in Hawaii right now and you can't buy any alcohol here after 2200 from any NEX/Mini-mart/etc. Is that the new norm for the NEX or is it just a Hawaii thing? Needless to say with the time difference I'm wide awake at midnight and wanted a beer. Oh well!

New rule about deglamorizing alcohol. The hours it can be sold is limited and alcohol can only occupy a certain percentage of square footage of the store.

Hard liquor and beer and wine are treated differently, so the quickie mart on NAS Jax had to remove hard liquor and it had to replaced with non-alcohol (square footage percentage issue) but the quickie mart can keep beer and wine....

I've stopped trying to understand the rationale of some decision makers.

 

[villanelle]

I once wanted a belt from the Atsugi NEX. It was not going to be seen, so literally any belt would have been sufficient. The store had not a single women's belt. Not one.
They have 14 acres of children's clothing-items that are shit on, puked on, and outgrown in 6 minutes, but not a single belt.

Also, all of husband's neckties were lost in the move. He needed one for an event shortly after we arrived, so I hit up the trusty NEX. The only neckties they had were Ed Hardy monstrosities, the finest of men's douche-wear. Not only hideous with their stylized dragons and skulls, but outrageously priced to boot.

Need a purse? They'll be happy to sell you one of the many $200+ bags in stock. I wonder what the command's financial specialist would say about that purchase? Is that really the best thing to offer at a place designed to offer low cost options to a largely low-paid population? Designer handbags?

I think the buyers for the NEX must be pedophiles (thus the pre-teen slutwear) and pathetic 40-something men, clinging desperately to their fictionalized versions of their glamourous youth, determined to go as ungracefully as possible into the latter halves of their lives (thus the Ed Hardy neckties and their ilk). Being neither a pre-pubescent tramp nor a man in the midst of a mid-life crisis, I find little there to suit me.

 

[PenguinGal]

I agree so much with Villanelle that I want to like her post again. The NEX here at NPS has basically nothing for women other than workout clothes and some ugly sweaters. Do not even get me started on the selection of socks and undergarments. Is it really THAT hard to stock plain white tshirts for women when there are a large number of servicewomen using the facilities?! I had to buy my shirts from the men's department. Even that has slim pickings if you don't want something plastered with Monterey, CA or Naval Postgradute School all over it.

As a side note, as a CEC officer I can get absolutely no shoulder or collar insignia for my community at the uniform shop. Not a single item. Not cool uniform shop, not cool.

 

[BusyBee604]

Hell hath no fury like a woman, whose clothing needs are scorned by the NEX!

Shit on kiddies duds; pedophile buyers.... Really? lol
BzB

 

[Flash]

.....As a side note, as a CEC officer I can get absolutely no shoulder or collar insignia for my community at the uniform shop. Not a single item. Not cool uniform shop, not cool.

I found that ordering uniform items online very convenient when I was 1200 miles from the closest NEX, pretty fast delivery too.

 

[HercDriver]

New rule about deglamorizing alcohol. The hours it can be sold is limited and alcohol can only occupy a certain percentage of square footage of the store.

Doubt you'll succeed in that, when so many folks now want to get into cocktail culture and decorate their house in Mid-Century Modern style, because of this:

(Full disclosure...never seen the show)

 

[PenguinGal]

I found that ordering uniform items online very convenient when I was 1200 miles from the closest NEX, pretty fast delivery too.

And I do. But for the times such as when I ordered my SDBs and took them in to get striped? Well it was a surprise for both the tailoring shop and myself to find that they don't stock the insignia. Luckily I wasn't in a rush for the uniform otherwise I would have been an inclined plane wrapped helically around a cylinder.

 

[Pags]

As a side note, as a CEC officer I can get absolutely no shoulder or collar insignia for my community at the uniform shop. Not a single item. Not cool uniform shop, not cool.

If it makes you feel any better, the Sasebo NEX doesn't have Naval Aviator warfare insignia.

 

[PenguinGal]

If it makes you feel any better, the Sasebo NEX doesn't have Naval Aviator warfare insignia.

Whar?!? The NAVY exchange does not have the insignia for one of URLs? While I can sort of vaguely forgive that given that it is predominantly a surface base (what with the ATG and all the ships homeported there) but still! Many of those ships leave with squadrons and detachments full of aviators!

I think the general consensus is that the NEX has some serious issues that need to be resolved including but not limited to age inappropriate clothing for the target audience, lack if inventory for both civilian and uniform items, lack of reduced pricing on older model technologies, and strange alcohol regulations. Still better than some other options.

 

[Beefalo]

Exchange policy regarding electronics at the NEX is good. Most places charge you a restocking fee for returning an opened electronic item. Think Best Buy is 14 days and 15% restocking. The NEX didnt charge me a restocking fee when I exchanged my laptop and the extended service plan prices are reasonable and they dont hassle you on buying a "product replacement plan" for a video game at Best Buy. Seriously you want me to pay $5 in case my copy of GTA 5 goes bad lol.

 

[Renegade One]

Is it really THAT hard to stock plain white tshirts for women when there are a large number of servicewomen using the facilities?! I had to buy my shirts from the men's department.

I admit to not really knowing the difference between "plain white t-shirts" for men and women.

I get the part about CEC uniform insignia, but do you not have a Target or Walmart of JC Penney's in Monterey for socks and underwear?

NEX on-line can shoot you as much uniform stuff as you need...

 

[Spekkio]

The difference is size structure.

The point isn't that those items can't be obtained anywhere else; the point is that a general store located on base, which is meant to cater to servicemembers, does not stock common items that servicemembers actually want (or need) to buy.

If the NEX's only function is to ship uniform items, might as well close the physical locations and move to an online-only model.

 

[insanebikerboy]

The point isn't that those items can't be obtained anywhere else; the point is that a general store located on base, which is meant to cater to servicemembers, does not stock common items that servicemembers actually want (or need) to buy.

Throughout this thread I keep reading that the NEX is self-sustaining and doesn't rely on subsidies, which, if I'm reading it correctly, everyone thinks is a good thing. Then, people bitch about the NEX not stocking what they want.

Fact is, if the NEX is self-sustaining then they are obviously stocking what they need to in order to make a profit. Regardless of what anyone thinks they "should" stock, if it's a black and red ink issue, they will stock what is needed to make money, or at least stay afloat. Not stocking white t-shirts may be a cost benefit analysis in that why waste money on stocking it when Wal Mart sells the same thing so much cheaper.

I.e., for Villanelle, in your case, I'm gonna guess the reason they don't stock women's belts isn't because someone is incompetent or so shortsided or pedophilliac that they forgot belts, it's because they were probably losing money on having belts in stock. Same goes for all the Ed Hardy ties, the current trend is Ed Hardy and Affliction, especially amongst junior enlisted, so they don't stock plain jane ties (in that NEX).

Personally, I buy stuff from the NEX and I buy stuff from out in town. If I can price match and get it lower at the NEX, I do. I've gotten some electronics and clothes cheaper at the NEX. I've also bought stuff out in town because the NEX didn't have what I wanted.

The wonders and amazement of free market society....

 

[villanelle]

I guess you give them far more credit than I do. Given that the my complaints are complaints I hear echoed extremely frequently, my take away isn't that they are doing what they need to do to make money and that that happens to not meet my specific needs. I suspect that they are making money not because of their choices, but in spite of them.

The women's clothing is commonly so reduced that you can find items for $2.99, or less. They end up having to give things away because they sit untouched for months. That suggests that hey aren't making buying choices that appeal to the average customer and just not to me. It suggests that much of what they buy are things no one wants. I think they still manage to make money because they have a semi-captive audience, because people believe things there are cheaper (true or not), and because on a few categories, they actually do quite well. But that if they made better choices, they could make even more money and/or have even lower prices.

Thankfully, all my OCONUS living has been done in the age of internet shopping and free shipping and returns, so I'm not really all that put out. I bought a men's belt, poked an extra hole in it to make it fit and hacked off the extra length, and Halloween was saved. And everything else, I buy online or on the economy.