If you have ever wondered how much money is to be made black marketing items from a USFK PX this article should give you some idea:
Camp Long soldiers seeking anything beyond basic food and living products must now take one extra step before shopping — to catch a bus to Camp Eagle.
The remote installation’s Army and Air Force Exchange Service store closed Sept. 14, leaving the roughly 150 Camp Long-based soldiers waiting for an hourly shuttle bus to ride the seven miles to Eagle. […]
Officials say the store hemorrhaged money until it bled to death: Total sales dropped from about $2.77 million in 2004 to about $2.17 million in 2005. Sales dropped again to about $1.61 million in 2006 and, as of Sept. 10, sales for 2007 were only about $172,000, according to AAFES officials.
That meant earnings of $584,145 in 2004; $229,897 in 2005; $66,181 in 2006; and a loss of $16,919 for this year as of Sept. 10.
Army Maj. Bruce Townley, installation commander for Long and Eagle, said the reason the store lost so much money was that authorities busted a major black-market ring there last year. [Jimmy Norris, Stars & Stripes]
Here is my prior posting on the Camp Long black marketing ring.
The Camp Long PX is a small PX and was able to make $2.77 million in sales in 2004 and then once the black marketing ring was caught and shut down sales dropped to $172,000 this year. That is a difference of $2,598,000 dollars. Just think how much money the larger PXs and especially the commissaries are bringing in for the black marketers? The amounts of money being made is mind boggling.
Is it any wonder why the AAFES employees black market when there is this much money to be made? Additionally the punishments if you are caught are so light the black marketers really have very little to lose and a whole lot to gain. For example the manger of the Camp Long PX received a year in jail but since he has been black marketing for years he is most likely a millionaire now. A store employee received only a 10 month suspended sentence. Who knows how much money he saved up during his time black marketing.
Since General Bell took over there seems to be an increased effort to crackdown on the black marketing, but this does beg the question of why a crackdown did not come long ago especially when the black marketers are so easy to identify. I think that is a can of worms nobody wants to open now.
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I called CID about this and told them they should sit outside the Camp Stanley front gate and just watch what goes on. I was told that just because the GI gets in the van that doesn’t mean he is black marketing. What the heck else is he doing getting in a van with a bunch of goods from the PX and commissary then? You would think they could at least follow the van and see where it goes or try to identify who is the van driver and see if they are linked to any black marketing rings.
I’m glad something is finally being done about the black marketing but even when I was back in Korea this past June I could still see the black marketers in action on Camp Stanley so there is still a long ways to go.
Why is that? Just how dirty are the USFK officials?
Things to think about.
as you mentioned at casey its the same in yongsan you can see the same chics buying crap everyday at a any of the numerous shoppettes on yongsan
and as mentioned above its always the same chics everyday
but the staff selling them could very well report it but why
maybe they are taking stuff off the shelves to?
in reality lets face it if the cp long PX could only muster $172,000
post black market sting and pre-black market sting was bringing in millions
what the hell do you think aafes will prefer?
they are in it to make money
i always think the same think you did however about people seeing me and saying there goes another guy black marketing
http://area3.korea.army.mil/hqcmd.html
Probably in no way related to the PX going under… but amusing nonetheless.
Marcus,
That is really funny. I have to do a posting on this one. Thanks.
mcnut,
In the particular incidents I have seen it always involved a young male GI carrying multiple bags of stuff getting into a vehicle with a Korean man driving. Highly suspicious and that is why I say why doesn’t CID follow them and see if they are going to the black market downtown or not?
PS. Perhaps the F.Trade agreement with the U.S. might take away some of the incentive.
My question is; why would he go there, and more importantly, why the hell would he include it on his online resume of sorts?
[…] His decorations include: Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, Army Achievement Medal, Navy active duty Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Medal with bronze star, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and the Sea Service with Bronze star. [HT: Marcus] […]
Camp Long didn’t have any force reduction that I know of. I think it would be really interesting to see what the sales figures were for the PXs on the smaller camps that were closed out and compare them to Camp Long’s figures.
foflappy,
Most of us that have lived in Korea for awhile find the black marketing shocking as well. What would piss me off was when the meat would disappear so quickly from the commissaries because the same black marketing ajummas would know when the meat was coming in and purchase it all before soldiers could get off work to buy anything.
I’m glad somebody is at least doing something about it now but I think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
The free trade agreement is not a full free trade agreement plus we have already seen how such an agreement would be implemented by the Korean government with the way they have been blockading US beef from arriving in the country.
Plus should someone working at a small PX be making millions of dollars? The people at the PX don’t work nearly as hard as soldiers serving in Korea, Iraq, and elsewhere who are not making easy millions.
Allowing black marketing only adds to the perception of high level corruption in USFK.
The sustainable form of black marketing has been going on since MacArthur landed at Incheon. It’s profitable and it could conceivably go on indefinitely.
The unsustainable type is when you have the the blackmarketeers getting overly greedy and stealing inventory from the back store rooms. This is essentially killing the goose that keeps laying the golden eggs. This is just what happened at Camp Long. Not content just to sell goods for a small kick back, the greed set in and inventory began disappearing off the back loading ramp. Not real smart. Now the PX is closed and these idiots no longer have a source of illicit income. If they’d have been smart they would have just continued to sell the goods over the counter for a small “fee.”
But what can I say, most criminals just happen to be criminally stupid.
Who: Elderly Korean man and woman.
What: Multiple trips into the PX to retrieve several shopping carts full of goods. One spouse would sit in the parking lot when the other went into the PX, then without saying a word to each other, one would come out about 15 minutes later with a shopping cart full of things as the other one would go into the PX, almost like a tag-team event. There were five abandoned shopping carts in the parking lot, although I only watched them enough times to witness them bringing out three shopping carts in such fashion. When their trunk was full, they started placing things into the backseat, and I noticed a 24-pack of Mountain Dew and large bags of rice in the backseat as well, presumably from the Stanley Commissary.
I didn’t see what was in the numerous white AAFES bags they brought out, but they brought out at least 3x each of the JVC DVD/VHS players featured on the cover of the 28SEP-04OCT AAFES sale flyer. These were clearly visible as they were in their original cardboard packaging with purple labeling.
When: 30 1600-1730 SEP 07.
Where: Camp Stanley PX gravel parking lot.
Car: Late model silver-grey Lincoln sedan, SOFA license plate 16DA 6836.
What pissed me off most of all was when we would have a unit BBQ and would have to get a special memo signed off by the garrison commander to purchase a large amount of items from the commissary for the unit BBQ. However the black marketers like you just saw will buy even more stuff than what I would need for a unit BBQ and what’s the odds they have a garrison commander memo allowing them to do it?
You know what you are probably right.
[…] barriers on U.S. automobiles, and will end up severely restricting all U.S. beef imports not purchased by the trunkload at the South Post PX, for the subsequent re-sale in market stalls and kalbi restaurants across […]