JANUARY 31, 2025 – The Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Commissary is leading the way in modernizing patrons’ shopping experiences by being the first store in Europe to implement electronic shelf labels (ESLs).
The usage of ESLs lines up with the Defense Commissary Agency’s (DeCA) fiscal year 2025-2029 strategic plan, “Accelerating Our Momentum into the Future.”
“We’re excited to be the first overseas commissary to implement this innovative technology that enhances the way we conduct pricing changes in our commissaries,” said DeCA Europe Area Director Tracie Russ.
“ESLs ultimately makes us faster, more efficient and improve the customer shopping experience,” she added. “More importantly, it also supports DeCA’s pricing strategy to provide the best savings possible, up to 25 percent, to those serving abroad.”
The new graphic labels replace paper labels, a significant shift in how store associates manage pricing, inventory, order fulfillment and customer interactions.
Digitized or electronic shelf labels are already common in local stores across Europe. Electronic shelf labels allow for quick, real-time price updates on the shelf via a mobile app, vice the time-consuming task of store associates walking aisles to change paper tags by hand.
The Ramstein Commissary has thousands of products on its shelves, and before ESLs each product had an individual paper price tag. Store workers had the never-ending daily task of continually updating paper labels due to frequent price changes from vendor price reductions or special sales.
“Printing paper labels that required store personnel to walk the aisles and replace labels on shelves with updated prices was inefficient and not the best use of resources,” said Shelton Davis, director, DeCA’s Information Technology Program Management Directorate. “Electronic Shelf Label technology provided a solution to update prices automatically.”
Also, according to Russ, store associates are now able to turn their attention to serving patrons. “We have 99 percent price accuracy in the store everyday using ESLs. Our eligible patrons are getting the latest savings and more customer-focused support from our store associates.”
The Ramstein Commissary serves as a testing ground for future ESL implementation across other stores in Europe and in the Pacific Area.
“If successful, DeCA would like to establish a plan to potentially rollout to Europe and Pacific stores, however a deeper analysis is needed to establish defined dates for the future,” Davis said.
The ESL solution was introduced to DeCA from 2007 through 2008 at nine pilot stores in the continental U.S. (CONUS). After achieving success at the pilot sites, DeCA deployed ESLs to the remaining 169 commissaries across CONUS (including Alaska and Hawaii). Fast forward to 2024 and the agency added Ramstein Air Base Commissary in Germany as the first overseas location to have ESLs.
“Promotions also contribute to price changes at all stores, creating a lot of manual labor in the store,” Davis said. “Also, if the prices shown at the product location on the aisle (which may be lower) does not match the scanned price at point-of-sale (which may be higher), these are times DeCA loses money as we will honor the lowest price.”
Another feature of electronic shelf labels are product descriptions. Davis notes that barcodes on the new labels can provide useful details other than the price.
“The Langley Air Force Base and Ramstein Air Base commissaries were converted to newer tri-color ESL allowing for even more timely product information and savings to be available to our patrons,” he said. “That’s really the promise of what these shelf tags can do.”
About DeCA: The Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing groceries to military personnel, retirees, disabled veterans and other authorized patrons and their families in a safe and secure shopping environment. Commissaries provide a military benefit, saving authorized patrons thousands of dollars annually on their purchases compared to similar products at commercial retailers. The discounted prices include a 5-percent surcharge, which supports the costs of building, modernizing and sustaining commissary facilities. A core military family support element and valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries contribute to family readiness, enhance the quality of life for America’s military services and their families, and help recruit and retain the best and brightest men and women to serve their country.
Story by Supunnee Ulibarri
Defense Commissary Agency