So....there in the late 1960s...at Bitburg Air Base (Germany).....someone noted that it was nearly impossible to get color TVs at the BX (AAFES). To be honest, there were a lot of electronic gear that simply wasn't sold by the BX.
So....someone approached the Wing Commander and suggested that he allow the base recreational folks run a 'club'....audio-visual in design....to sell new gadgets. He signed off, and in a matter of weeks....they had a demo-area set up and a couple of civilian spouses were sales-people.
Based on who is telling the story....in a matter of a couple of months....the BX 'boss' felt it was unfair competition (the base recreational fund was getting the profits....not the BX). The wing commander didn't care....folks were happy, and consumers were getting what they wanted.
The BX empire in Europe then went to the Air Force Headquarters and the four-star. Again....it was unfair competition. The general.....as the story goes....asked the BX why they couldn't sell the same gear....at the same competitive price.
By this point....most all air bases in Europe had a audio-visual club going on.
The BX folks? Well....they went into competition and tried to match wits. It was almost like you had a bunch of 50-year old guys in management who could not recognize the era developing.
So by mid-1970s....if you walked into a Ramstein, or Rhein Main....audio-visual shop....you noted that they had a real LP section....a camera section....tons of stereo gear. The BX folks....always 3 or 4 steps behind.
In 1978, as I arrived....I found the audio-visual shop at Rhein Main to be an interesting place. Over a two-year period....I probably bought fifty albums.
By the mid-1990s....the BX finally reached a point where they had the right people and the trend was in their favor. The audio-visual clubs began to fade.
It reached a point in the mid-90s....in the vault I worked....that we engaged for about an hour about the competition fall-out, basic economics, and how the BX lagged so badly.
As long as you exist as a sole-source 'player'.....you don't care about competition, or developing new trends. In the 30 years that the audio-visual clubs existed....I don't think they had a real 'big-guy' strategy on trends....whatever came next, was simply accepted (they moved on). The BX folks? They couldn't maneuver that way. If they did see a trend....it took a full-year to re-think the strategy....get orders in, and reach a new stage of competition.
As the BX maturity level evolved, and they erased the competition situation with audio-visual....another new era evolved....internet purchasing (Wal-Mart, Pennys, Amazon, etc).
Around the 2008 era....you could guess that 50-percent of Germany-bound GI's were ordering and picking up via the post-office. The BX had lost another competition battle.
