After a complete renovation, the ship’s store aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) re-opened with a completely different appearance Jan. 10.
Truman’s ship’s store now resembles a Navy Exchange (NEX), like those found at almost any naval base.
“We recently finished a project renovating the ship’s store, which was meant to take some of the elements we use in our NEXs and transfer them over to the environment within the ship’s store,” said Robert J. Bianchi, chief executive officer of Navy Exchange Service Command . “We wanted to illustrate history and heritage through a shopping experience Sailors would expect from any NEX.”
Of the many changes to Truman’s store, arrangement and organization of shelves and products, amount and variety of stocked items and the overall appearance of the store are some of the prominent elements designed to reflect features found in other NEXs.
“Our hope is to take the experience we’ve gained from our $3 billion organization, which consists of 300 stores, and share it with the Ship’s Servicemen (SH) and sales officers in the 155 ship’s stores throughout the Navy,” said Bianchi. “We can take this experience and train the SHs to deliver an experience in the ship’s store that a Sailor would expect in a NEX or one of our other businesses.”
The rebranding of the ship’s store brought with it benefits not only for customers, but for the Sailors who work in the store.
“The remodeling of the store makes our job quite a bit easier because we have a lot more room for our products to be presented to the customer,” said Ship’s Serviceman Seaman Samantha Bader , who said she is excited to work in the remodeled store. “It’s also more visually appealing and cleaner, which also helps make our job easier.”
With their next deployment quickly approaching, Ship’s Serviceman 3rd Class (SW) Sadie Grant said Truman’s crew should benefit from the store’s enhanced services.
“The remodeling brought with it more variety in the store’s products and easier access for the customer,” said Grant. “This will help improve morale because the organization and variety will make Sailors want to visit the ship’s store more often. In turn, this will increase the amount of money being given to the morale, welfare and recreation division (MWR), which goes directly back to the crew.”
According to Bianchi, Navy Exchange Service Command’s intent was to provide a better overall experience in the on-board store to the crew.
“Deployments are tough and I feel like the changes will provide an opportunity for Sailors to escape from the craziness and stress for a few minutes out of the workday,” said Bianchi. “I’m really pleased about being able to give back to the crew and especially about how well this has all come together. There’s been a lot of cooperation from the crew and I’m very thankful to work with them. Everybody’s put in 110-percent to make this happen.”
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, January 16, 2013