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BAGHDAD, Iraq – It is not the biggest retail store in Baghdad, but soldiers wearing every unit patch in the city have shopped at Camp Dragoon’s CavMart. Set up in a former Iraqi army weapons storeroom, the CavMart boasts shelves stocked with heath care items, personal hygiene supplies, batteries, soft drinks and snacks. And, coming just in time for the holiday shopping season, there will be a Christmas store stocked with traditional Western holiday gifts and decorations coupled with traditional Iraqi crafts and souvenirs, said store manager Master Sgt. Patrick Sanchez, chemical operations NCO, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, The 2nd ACR, based at Fort Polk, La., is attached to the 1st Armored Division for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Camp Dragoon’s 900-soldier population makes it too small for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service to set up one of own retail outlets, Sanchez said. Instead, the exchange works with units to support smaller, soldier-managed stores in outlying camps. Soldiers run the stores, pick up merchandise and manage the money. In addition to meeting soldiers’ basic shopping needs, the store had one other requirement. Sanchez said the regiment’s command sergeant major said, “Make it feel like it was in Des Moines, Iowa.” “I’m from Kansas. I had it in my mind what I remembered from when I was a kid, Sanchez said. So the troopers set about to open a store. After a long day’s work of cleaning, removing old ammunition and scrounging around the camp for shelves, the store was ready for its first load of merchandise. The store’s name came naturally – they simply picked something that sounded good, he said. The U.S. Cavalry troopers called it CavMart. “ I think now we’ve just about hit it,” he said. “Our soldiers like coming in here. I have regulars that come in on a daily basis. We try to run it like a little mom and pop shop.” Conversation and a friendly atmosphere are just as important to the customers as the products on the shelves, he said. “ I think soldiers feel good coming in here. It gives them a feeling of being back home,” he said. “We always try to keep a happy and cheery atmosphere because we know it is rough out there.” The five soldier-salespersons, all members of the regimental chemical section, spend one week working in the regiment’s tactical operations center and the next working at the store, Sanchez said. |
