Photo By Valerie Lynn Maigue | NAVAL BASE GUAM, Guam (Feb. 11, 2022) - Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) Director and...... read more read more
NAVAL BASE GUAM (Feb. 11, 2022) – Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) Director and Chief Executive Officer (CE0) William “Bill” Moore visited Orote Commissary to meet with local commissary leadership and employees, assess operations, and discuss initiatives for the store onboard U.S. Naval Base Guam, Feb. 9-10.
After serving in the Headquarters, Department of the Army as the principal deputy to the U.S. Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Moore was appointed to serve as DeCA Director and CEO in August 2020.
His oversight covers operations in 45 states, two territories and 13 countries - nearly 240 commissaries with a workforce of more than 13,000 personnel and annual sales exceeding $4 billion.
During an interview with Moore, he discussed the future of the Orote Commissary and how DeCA is working to overcome global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic:
Q1. What is the purpose of your visit?
A1. Since I have become DeCA director and CEO, one of my top priorities has been to visit our commissaries to see our awesome employees as they deliver the benefit, as well as meet our deserving Patrons, especially in our overseas and remote stateside locations. I make these visits with my Senior Enlisted Advisor, USMC SgtMaj Michael Saucedo. Together, our intent is to acknowledge their hard work and also see where we can better assist them from our headquarters in Virginia.
We only deliver the vital commissary benefit in our stores - the rest of us are here to enable our stores’ success! The COVID-19 pandemic has made travel a challenge, but we were finally able to visit the Orote Commissary and recognize the stellar job our commissary employees are doing in providing the commissary benefit to your community.
Q2. What do you hope to accomplish during your visit to the Orote Commissary?
A2. I want to tour the facilities, but most importantly, I want to talk to our employees to see first-hand how they are doing and how we can help them deliver the commissary benefit to our service members and their families in Orote. We also search out innovation and best practices that we can share across all of our commissaries. I’m amazed at some of the remarkable initiatives I’ve discovered by visiting our stores - the “front lines” of our mission!
Q3. What type of improvements are in store at the Commissary? How will this benefit patrons?
A3. We are excited to have rolled out our new Commissary CLICK2GO online shopping with curbside pickup to all our stores world-wide. We also have online payment wherever we’ve upgraded our point-of-sale system - currently at 80% of our stores and we’ll upgrade the rest this summer. We also intend to offer delivery services - we are about to pilot that at 8 U.S. stores later this Spring and if successful, will quickly roll that out globally as well. Other customer-focused initiatives include the launch of our dietitian-approved fueling station program to more than 170 commissaries, including an outlet at the Orote Commissary. These stations provide on-the-go nutritious meals that offer a healthier more economical alternative to fast food. This is a great example of how we are evolving our culture to a Patron Focus. Our Patrons told us they wanted low-cost, healthy, ready-to-eat, options and we are providing what they want!
Our fueling stations are one of several commissary initiatives to help improve the health and wellness of our customers. We work diligently to offer our patrons the right mix of products and resources to support their wellness objectives all while saving big at the checkout. These resources include the following:
“Thumbs Up Dietitian-Approved” tags on shelves makes it easy for patrons to quickly identify high-nutrition-quality foods to incorporate into a healthy eating pattern
“Thinking Outside the Box” recipes that offers meal solutions that are quick, healthy and economical with ingredients typically offered at enhanced savings to our customers.
Meal planning: To take the work out of meal planning, DeCA has created two dietitian-approved dinner menu plans including weekly shopping lists, each for an entire month of family meals. These monthly menu plans are available on commissaries.com at these links:
Meal Plan #1:
https://www.commissaries.com/sites/default/files/2021-02/nutrition-month-calendar-2b.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0_oBR-YQTNEKtW6mwIbMtReeqr4qc_OjoBMoVtjRjaq3zKsbMKQIyHZuo
Plan #2: https://www.commissaries.com/sites/default/files/2021-09/Meal-plan-calendar-with-links.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2t-Ru7lteLVpv42hfv7-0rL92Nj7ndqvRR9ZflA-4LGnt143xr2V45l4Y
Q4. In the past few weeks, there has been a delay in shipments – particularly in produce. While we know this is affecting stores in Guam (on and off base) and in the U.S. mainland, what is DeCA doing to work on shipment delays and shortages at the Orote Commissary?
A4. This is probably our greatest current challenge and I’m frustrated we can’t do better. We’ve made significant improvements to those aspects of the supply chain we control, but there are many aspects we don’t. At the moment, the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), like all other retailers worldwide, is experiencing the same level of supply chain disruptions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything from manufacturer cuts to our orders, labor shortages to upload/offload products onto ships and drive delivery trucks, and more, have severely impacted product flow – not just to stores stateside but to our overseas stores. These disruptions have placed a tremendous strain on DeCA’s goal to have our shelves full of the products our Patrons need, all the time.
To help ease these supply chain disruptions, we prioritize shipments of high-demand products to our overseas locations, like Orote, as well as to remote U.S. locations. We do this by working daily with our distributors to ensure consistent product is available to meet our Patrons’ needs. If deliveries to overseas stores reach a critical point, we will do whatever is necessary to get much-needed products to our overseas stores – even airlifting if necessary - to serve our Patrons the best we can.
Currently, the flow of products to our stores overseas is below preferred levels, but is flowing.
Q5. What message would you like to relay to Commissary patrons, some of
whom are worried about shortages?
A5. I’d like to tell them these supply chain disruptions are unprecedented across the entire grocery industry, and all suppliers, as well as distributors, are working hard to improve the flow of products. DeCA will do all we can within our influence, in partnership with our suppliers, to get products to the shelves. We will continue to prioritize our overseas and remote locations for the products we receive.
Have faith - supply will get better as the pandemic impacts subside. If they happen to see empty shelves in the store, please be patient; often the store will be restocked the very next day! Finally, feel free to ask an employee or manager - they may be able to tell you how soon we will get the product.
Q6. Do you have a message for the team at the Orote Commissary and the work they have done during these trying times (i.e. working through COVID, delays, etc.)?
A6. They are heroes - plain and simple - for the sacrifices they’ve made and risks they have taken to continue providing the commissary benefit at the store, in spite of this tragic pandemic. I just want to personally thank each of our awesome Orote Commissary employees for going above and beyond in providing the benefit during the pandemic. These employees have been on the “front lines” each and every day providing this vital benefit to our much deserving customers. Their hard work and personal sacrifice is incredible and has helped us deliver a Department of Defense-designated critical mission in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Q7. Is there anything else you would like to add?
A7. Providing the commissary benefit for our service members and their families, like those at Orote, improves their quality of life - no different than my own childhood as a “military brat” with my father being a combat veteran, and career Army NCO.
We want our Patrons to know they consistently save 40% or more on their grocery bills, if they shop their commissary. Imagine, just by shopping their commissary, our Patrons put $40 or more back in their wallets for every $100 they spend on groceries! So, they get a taste of home, with U.S. products they want, as well as select local products they desire, all at a huge discount in areas where shopping options are limited, sometimes unsafe, and expensive. Nowhere is the commissary benefit more important than to our military and their family members sacrificing for our Nation in overseas assignments.
| Date Taken: | 02.11.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.24.2022 18:29 |
| Story ID: | 415269 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 350 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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