TOP STORY>>ID card scans start at Commissary

By Arlo Taylor
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

The base commissary started scanning customer IDs on Thursday during checkouts as part of a new Defense Commissary Agency procedures.

The store's approximately 32,000 monthly customers will simply show their ID and have it scanned at checkout to establish their eligibility.

The program will also help improve the commissary benefit for all patrons by keeping up patron usage, officials said.

"Commissary customers are long used to presenting their DOD ID cards to cashiers to verify eligibility for the commissary benefit," said Manuel Othon, Little Rock Commissary Store Director.

"Now we're able to verify eligibility by scanning the bar code on the back of the ID cards, which is more effective than a visual inspection to ensure customer eligibility of commissary benefits."

By scanning the ID at checkout, DeCA will no longer need to maintain any personal information on customers in its computer systems, such as the system used for customers who write checks. Cross-referenced with other DOD data, the scan data will give DeCA data by military service, along with customer demographics that does not identify specific personal data of an individual.

This data will eventually help the agency identify shopping needs and preferences - information that is essential in today's retail business environment. It will also allow more accurate reporting to the military services on commissary usage.

"The data will give us a better grasp of our store's customer profile in a way that mere product movement data can't," Othon said. "For example, just knowing the average age and household size of our customer base, gives our buyers and operators great insight into the types of products and services our customers are interested in, and that's more than product movement can tell us."

The demographic information DeCA will use is strictly limited to: card ID number, rank, military status, branch of service, age, household size and ZIP codes of residence and duty station. DeCA will not be using any personal information such as names, addresses or phone numbers.

"The methods, processes and information we'll use will not compromise our customers' privacy – they can be sure of that," said Joseph H. Jeu, DeCA director and CEO. "We're putting technology to work to better understand our customers and ensure the commissary benefit continues to remain relevant to them now and in the future."

For more information on ID card scanning, go to http://www.commissaries.com/documents/contact_deca/faqs/id_card_scanning.cfm.