Photo By Sgt. Walter D. Marino II | Sgt. Marlene Rodriguez, a Marine Corps Community Service Marine with Combat Logistics...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Taking a walk onto the grass and dirt plains of the Landing Zone Bluebird training area, June 22, one might not expect to find the accessibility and convenience of a Marine Corps exchange.
However, in this case, the Marine Corps Community Services employees and retail Marines worked together and brought an exchange to the field environment to Sailors and Soldiers participating in a Joint-Over the Shore Logistics Exercise from June 3 and is scheduled to end on June 25.
Tasked with handling most of the sales in the store, Sgt. Marlene Rodriguez, a retail Marine with Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, believes providing this service has helped make life easier for service members in the training environment.
"In general, the Soldiers and Sailors have to stay here, so if we weren't here, I don't think they would have access to half the stuff they have," the Deerfield Beach, Fla. native explained. "On a day-to-day basis, they get things like food, drinks and hygiene items they forgot to pack. It would definitely be more difficult to obtain these items if we weren't out here."
In addition to providing needed and wanted store items to services members, Rodriguez feels it is just as important to provide good customer service.
"We want to exceed the customer's expectations every time they come in here. Good customer service is what we're about," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez is not alone; others such as Kathy Benedict, the store operations manger feel the same way about their work and more importantly, the care of service members.
"We're in the business of taking care of service members and that's what we do," said Benedict.
The store makes on average $3,000 a day, the highest day reaching past $5,000, she explained, but it is not about the money for the employees and Marines working there.
"Every time they come in here, we want to make sure that we exceed any expectation they may have, that we have more than what they need, and we have it all the time," Rodriguez said.
This was the first time Rodriguez had seen MCCS provide a field exchange of this size where service members lived and worked during field training.
"Usually we just have the have the stores out in [Iraq]. I don't think we've ever done a whole store out in the field. It's really something new," Rodriguez said,
When service members are working long hours preparing themselves for combat, simple items like razors, toothpaste and soda make their time in the field easier.
"They are away from home, and this is putting them a little more at ease and putting their morale up," Rodriguez said. "Some of them are away from home for the first time. It helps out a lot."
For Rodriguez, success has been measured by the positive feedback received from familiar customers.
"By being out here every day and on the weekends, I've gotten to know some of the Sailors and Soldiers, and they've expressed how happy they are that we're out here," said Rodriguez.
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2009 15:50 |
| Story ID: | 35577 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 380 |
| Downloads: | 304 |
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