Commissary baggers could soon run into issues accessing Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — The commissary on this installation south of Hiroshima may lose its baggers in the next few months due to a revamp of the base’s access policy.
All seven baggers are local residents, according to a bagger at the commissary on June 6 who declined to identify herself out of fear of retaliation. None fall under the status of forces agreement, or SOFA, between the United States and Japan.
“Commissary baggers are permitted base access in accordance with applicable regulations and granted permission by the store director to enter the commissary for the purpose of bagging groceries,” base spokesman 1st Lt. Aaron Ellis said by email June 5. “All personnel who access the installation must follow the base access order.”
The decision to reevaluate the baggers’ status was made after reviewing Defense Commissary Agency policy and the air station’s base access policy, he said.
The baggers were afforded a three-month extension for base access that will expire at the end of August, but it’s unknown if that will be extended again, Ellis said.
“No decision has been made at this point regarding any future base access requests,” he said. “Each new request or renewal request will be evaluated to determine whether there is a legitimate requirement and if the visitor is eligible for base access in accordance with the base access order.”
Whenever commissary patron Deya Clavijo has a large shopping cart full of groceries, she will “definitely use the baggers.”
“It shouldn’t happen,” the Navy spouse told Stars and Stripes at the commissary Friday. “If they’re going to change things, there are other things they can change here that is not the baggers.”
There are no plans to discontinue baggers at the Iwakuni commissary, Defense Commissary Agency spokesman Keith Desbois told Stars and Stripes by email May 24.
“Baggers are self-employed persons who have obtained permission from the installation commander to enter the installation for the sole purpose of soliciting commissary customers to bag and carry out their groceries in return for the expectation of a tip,” he wrote.
Desbois said new requirements implemented by the base are causing confusion on this subject.
“Baggers do not work for the commissary,” he said. “The installation manages the bagger program. DeCA has a Memorandum of Understanding with each installation or base for the program.”
Desbois did not respond when asked in a follow-up email whether the commissary will find others to take their place.
In the mid-1950s, baggers started working for tips in the commissaries, Desbois said. Before that, counters clerks placed customer purchases in bags, sacks or boxes as a courtesy.
