NAAFI to go...
 

Yet another small straw tossed thoughtlessly on the camel's back. Will this one break it...?

Naafi to shut up shop after century of service | UK | News | Daily Express

Compare support of deployed personnel from the UK to that of the USA...disgrace...

Maybe they will give a contract to Starbucks.......................hat, coat


Seriously though, there are serious implications for support of service personnel and their families - "Military Covenant" anyone?

No
Ambition
And
****-all
Interest

Well, it just shows how bad the shrinkage in the services had been, let's face it, the size of the military now one store in a small town with the same population would have covered iit.

Perhaps they should have changed along the way to allow ex service people to continue using their services, I know when I left you had to clear everything you owed etc if anything.. I realise that a lot of other stores are cheaper and to be honest stocked better, but they lost a potential customer base retention as the services shrunk and "customers" left the services.

Actually they did, Nutloose, but arguably far too late - following a customs agreement in 2009, so not under their control - and I believe the takeup for the bureaucratic authorisation process has not been great.

Shopping in the NAAFI - Veterans - BFGnet

I never knew, but was that just BFG?
It is ashamed that it never spread further and also seems to be a bit of as you say, a bureaucratic nightmare, surely it would have been better to issue one at the cessation of active service.

It has become less relevent over the years certainly. Most UK bases used SPAR anyway. Then again I have fond memories of the early seventies, queing beside the NAAFI van down at the Airfield at Halton for my hot tea and cheese pastie!

Yep, or the NAAFI wagon at Colt that would run a tick list, one bod back on detachment from Germany a couple of years later got collared for his outstanding tick lol.

So who will run the NAAFI as in bars etc?

Is nothing sacred ?

There is a potential issue with OR clubs, and for the RN at sea. if PSI (RAF) or PRI (Army) has to take them over then they will become charitable institutions under a Statutory Instrument the number of which 20+ years on now escapes me. However, the outcome would be more work (secondary duties) for unit personnel. I am not impressed at this development. for the RN I suspect similar issues will arise, the more so in respect of ships' canteens. others will know more, and more currently, than I.

Problems I can foresee is if the NAAFI cannot make a profit with the clubs, who will? It's ok running a club on a large station, but when you get some of the smaller stations what happens, they would in effect be subsidised by the larger outlets under NAAFI thus allowing them to continue trading. Who owns the buildings?

Which means that it hasn't completed a century of service, whatever one's outlook on them.

Certainly my 48 Squadron boss was not impressed when told that his night shift ground crew (before they got 'centralised') were not getting the refreshment van round, because 'it wasn't economic to do so'. He set out to find someone who could do the job, and agreed a price list for bacon butties, chocolate milkshakes, and the like, with a local contractor who paid for utilities consumed as well as putting an agreed amount into the Sqn fund every month.

Local NAAFI manager went ballistic and reminded boss and Stn Cdr that NAAFI had a trading monopoly on MOD property. Boss said that the operational capability of his Squadron required that groundcrew were properly catered for 24/7. Stn Cdr said that if the Sqn Cdr told him that his operational capability required 24/7 refreshments then that was what he would get.

NAAFI manager pushed it up his CoC to Whitehall whence NAAFI supremo came to remonstrate. Got same message from boss and Stn Cdr. Went back home. Local contractor remained, serving both first line and Sqn HQ, after we (Hastings) had gone and continued with re-equipped (Hercules) Squadron until departure to LYN.

I think it was the same NAAFI manager who had the RAF Police, that carried out our customs clearance on behalf of Singapore Govt, confiscate our duty free cigs (marked 'HM Ships Only', which were bizarrely the only duty frees you could buy in Kuching or Labuan) and substitute them from his surplus stock, because RAF Changi was not an HM Ship. His surplus stock consisted of Camel cigs only which were dual purpose, you smoked half and chewed the other half (if you were so inclined), as they were so loosely filled.

Servitor Servientium? Yer 'avin a larf mate, aintcha?

My old man, (MAA RN), had a very dim view of NAAFI managers re. fiddling the books here and there.
With regard to a trading monopoly, every Sqdn I served on had it's own coffee bar and refreshments 24/7.

In any overseas base, US military personnel can walk into the BX/PX and spend US$ - a big convenience for transit personnel, saving them the inconvenience and expense of exchanging currency. I could never understand why NAAFI couldnt operate this system on overseas bases.

I certainly hardly ever used NAAFI shops when I was serving, I doubt if they will be missed

Should have been done about 30 years ago or at the very least re-organised from the top down IMHO.

While the concept was good, the reality was in most cases simply awfull. They just never kept up with what the customer wanted and instead relied on the 'closed shop' that kept the opposition down on the units.

They could have learnt a lot from our cousins from across the pond and the facilities that they were provided with.

Aye but its allowed some extremely ugly thick women to get employment and regular sex for 94 years.

There is nothing about this on the NAAFI website

So what are all the young trainees going to go for the warmth and affection that the Naafi staff used to allegedly provide on certain training bases? some of the naafi girls were very nice to look at....

Mind you they could be acidic at times, eg:
Halton c1966; on the airfield one evening for a demonstration of what went on on the airfield:
I was at the NAAFI van buying a bag of crisps or some such from the attractive girl who was serving, along comes the SWO and without him saying a word, she says 'you can f*** off I'm not bloody serving you'.