Sex No Longer Sells – at AAFES
Well, that’s apparently true when it comes to magazines, anyway.
According to this article (emphasis added),
Playboy, Penthouse and other sex-themed magazines will no longer be sold at Army and Air Force exchanges _ a move described by the stores’ operators as a business decision based on falling sales, and not a result of recent pressure from anti-pornography activists.
Raise your hand if you believe that politics had nothing to do with this decision – especially in light of the recent public claims that the presence of “sex magazines” contributes to military sexual exploitation and sexual assault and that DoD needs to “change the culture” to fix things.
Yeah, I didn’t think so. Me either.
The timing of this decision is ironic, however. Apparently DoD recently released a letter indicating that sales of magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse were OK for sale by military stores under Federal law “because they were not considered ‘sexually explicit.’ ”
So, legally they’re not “sexually explicit” – but they are “sex magazines” anyway?
Ooh-kay. And the tooth fairy leaves a quarter for every baby tooth lost by good kids and left under their pillow, too.
Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we try treating the troops like the adults they are – and hammering the few miscreants and fools who can’t or won’t act responsibly?
Oh, wait. We used to do that, but were told to stop. I forget why.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves"
So where are Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines going to get their porn now?
The interwebz like everyone else
Actually I think the low sales explanation could be accurate. My soldiers all have pron on their smartphones or laptops now. One guy gets his Penthouse subscription on his Ipad.
Dave Thul: perhaps that’s part of the reason. But I’m personally convinced that political pressure had a LOT to do with it.
So that means ‘Playgirl’ won’t be available for the ghey guys any more? Oh, those poor guys, what WILL they do for excitement?
Ex-PH2: dunno – Playgirl wasn’t mentioned in the article.
It probably will be axed as well. But it’s possible it might be retained as a “feminist” or “women’s” magazine. That would surprise me – but given the political winds today, it would not shock me.
As a young man, I always enjoyed the “Women of [insert SEC, ACC, Ivy League…].” I also recall one particular Playboy woman with whom I was ga-ga in love. I’m talking pic taped to the inside of the locker. After all of these decades, I still recall the pic. She wore a print skirt, the shot was of her walking away but her beautiful face was turned toward the camera, and the skirt was jacked up, exposing the lovliest battocks I had ever seen. I lost a great many potential children, thanks to her. And for that I owe her a great debt.
Hondo, I’m sure that Vogue and all those other glossy women’s mags will still be at the PX checkout lane. The last time I was ever in a PX or shoppette I don’t remember seeing Playgirl with the three or 4 Playboy titles. As for Penthouse, I’m pretty sure they dropped that years ago when they started showing penetration several years ago. I don’t know what FHM or Maxim is going to do, I’m pretty sure that military sales and Americas frat boys were the only demographic that kept them afloat.
“Why don’t we try treating the troops like the adults they are – and hammering the few miscreants and fools who can’t or won’t act responsibly?”
Oh, that is so…old school. Don’t you know that we’re all now just one alcoholic beverage away from becoming serial rapists?
We are all taught now on a daily basis that we’re all just little children who can’t be trusted. That’s why we have breathalyzers on the quarterdecks now. In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s a program in the works to require each and every *private* instance where a miss-deed gets prevented (like if a buddy steps in and keeps you from doing something stupid), to be reported to the chain of command.
The military has always been the place for social experiments that are later imposed on the greater society.
The magazines are being removed from the shelves “for the kids”. We can’t have family members exposed to such things, remember? /sarc off/
I remember the days when Hustler was still sold at the Shopette. I even remember when a Playboy Playmate was at the Shopette at Schofield Barracks signing autographs.
What’s next? The Tattoo and lowrider mags?
Someone please correct my memory here, but back in the dark ages, they were not sold, or if they were they were under the counter. Just do not remember seeing any when I was a kid. And I seem to remember some controversy about the sale of “girlie mags” generally around 1970, give or take a few. Like maybe placing them in the shopettes was the compromise while leaving them out of the main exchanges? I dunno. Hope someone’s memory is better than mine!
Bambi Lin Finney was one hot looking Marine from Playboy Women of the Armed Forces…think it was 1980. Mid 70s to mid 80s were IMO Playboy’s best era…Marianne Gravatte, Michelle Drake, Kathryn Morrison, Candace Collins, Teri Welles – dang how time flies.
Hondo-
political pressure had a role, I agree. But I think the sales dropped to the point where AAFES didn’t have a reason to keep fighting the political pressure.
With all the budget cuts in the pipeline, AAFES has to play nice with Congress to avoid being on the chopping block themselves.
To think, the entire pron collection on every boat I’ve ever been on (officer, goat locker, and blueshirt) could be scanned and put on a single 16GB flash drive.
Or, as has been pointed out, someone’s iPhone. Times have changed.
I agree with Dave Thul on this one. I think the rise of websites like youporn has more to do with it than political pressure.
As long as they still sell Glamour Magazine…..
http://www.parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/george-constanza.jpg
AAFES stopped being a “benefit” to the Troops long ago. It was the Clinton Admin which ordered AAFES to raise the price on sinful products, like tobacco, and gasoline, to match the civilian stores.
The ONLY benefits Troops get from AAFES is location of the monopoly stores, and lack of sales tax, but often, it’s still cheaper to shop off-post.
The AAFES monopoly is raking in money hand over fist, and their “financial donations” to MWR had no apparent effect during my days in uniform.
@10-weren’t they already on the top shelf so that the “kids” couldn’t reach them?
🙁 freedom includes pron
David Thul: AAFES, NEX, MCX, and CGX are all NAF activities. There isn’t much there to chop. For AAFES in particular, about 98% of their operating expenses, including all of their civilian salaries, are generated from sales revenues. About 70% of their “profits” are returned to the services and are used to support MWR programs. They may not be as efficient as Wal-Mart, but they’re hardly a major drain on the DoD budget.
In general, TN is correct above. Service exchanges are hardly a great benefit any more, other than perhaps on their own few “store brand” products (most of which are still both inexpensive and good).
Were exchanges taxpayer-subsidized like DeCA, their prices would very likely be considerably lower on average than they are today. But military exchanges receive little if any subsidy from DoD today.
Also, what a lot of people don’t realize, is that commissary and exchange margins can be razor thin. IIRC, a civilian grocery chain has a profit margin of less than 2 percent. Compare that to an oil company like Exxon-Mobil which has about a 10 percent profit margin, or major banks like BofA, Chase, etc., which have profit margins approaching 30 percent.
Frankly, if I was still in, this whole thing would be a great big meh. Guys (and gals) are going to get their jollies online, and as long as they don’t do it on government computers/servers, yawn.
NHSparky: apples and oranges, my friend.
The service Exchanges are NAF – they get essentially zero subsidy from the DoD (see my previous comment). They are charged with making a “profit”, but most of that goes to service MWR programs. As a bennie today – meh. Their biggest selling point these days IMO is convenience – it’s on-base and you don’t have to go out and return to shop.
Commissaries (DeCA) are different. Those are appropriated fund activities – e.g., their employees are government (or are working for tips only – e.g., the baggers). If I recall correctly, their prices are by policy generally set close to or at cost; facilities are government-owned; and a 5% surgcharge is added to cover waste/spoilage/pilferage (and maybe cleaning supplies; not sure if Uncle Sam picks up the tab for those or not). That’s why the Commissary remains a very good benefit – you can generally save quite a bit there even when compared to a Wal-Mart Superstore (I’ve seen 20% quoted as the average saving).
I always had a thing for Wendy Hamilton. I still have a decent collection from the 90s and early 2000s, but it’s been years since I last picked one up. Heck, the last one I bought may very well have been at an AAFES store.
@24–I knew the commissary was a good deal when I was in, but that was nearly 15 years ago, and wasn’t sure if that was still the case. Thanks for clarifying the difference.
The real story is:
Military ghey rights activists insist on selling the new lifestyle magazine “Men in Uniform and Their Junk” in all military exchanges. The Pentagon threw up their hands and just removed all publications.
Guys, relax. 891 different magazines are being dropped.
You know the shelves that are full of magazines? They’re getting rid of those to make way for more shelf space for stuff they can actually turn a profit on. Sales on magazines have declined something like 86%. Yes, all the porno mags happen to fall into this category of getting cut.
What bothers me is that these “morality in media” idiots are calling it a win. It’s not a win for them, it’s a business decision for AAFES.
IIRC, they did the same thing during the 70’s. Shit, big Army was even restricting what we could watch on TV. The AAFEES on our base was small and all we could buy were small quick needed items otherwise, it was off to commissary or off post to the higher priced civilian store.
@20 – “Back in the day”, they used to be held behind the counter, like at 7-11. They were visible, but not on the floor with the rest of the merchandise. Back then, the clerk used to make a Slurpee for the customer. That has changed, too.
I still have a couple of the 16 oz plastic Slurpee cups that had baseball stats and photos of players on them. Johnny Bench and Rod Carew. Anyone remember those?
@30. I am missing one cup; otherwise, I would have a complete set. I just can’t recall which one I’m missing and the stuff (thousands and thousands of cards and other baseball goodies) are all in tubs. I know I have Bench and Carew. Dammit. I guess I better start on those tubs.
What else are they going to take away?
Motivator: if AAFES is dropping ALL magazines – or they can show they’re dropping the lowest-selling 891, and that Playboy/Penthouse/Playgirl/et al are among those – I’ll buy that.
However, I’m guessing they’ll still sell some magazines. And I’d guess the skin mags are among their better selling ones.
My guess is that this was a chance for AAFES to “look good” without looking like they’re caving to political pressure – when in reality they’re doing exactly that. And by political pressure, I’m not singling out either the “Moral Majority” types or the Womyn’s lobby/liberal left types. I don’t have much good to say about either, actually. To some degree I see both as enemies of freedom.
@31 – I suppose you could check EBay. I had most of ’em too, but most got thrown away or were damaged in the dishwasher over time.
(Sorry to get off the point of discussion…)
Remember when the movie M*A*S*H was banned from playing on post theaters? You went off post to watch it!
First they came to take my porn, but I didn’t speak up…
Yeah, you see where it’s going. Nowhere.
As has been pointed out, magazine sales of all types have pretty much hit bottom. I don’t even remember the last time I bought a girlie mag. Meh.
I’m sure you guys will like the results of the study mentioned in this article that says the wide availability of p*rn coincides with a drop in the incidence of rape. And @7?? Waaayyyy to much information! http://reason.com/archives/2013/07/15/seven-surprising-truths-about-the-world More Porn, Less Rape Over the past two decades, as pornography has become much more easily accessible over the Internet, the rate of rape and sexual assault has declined by about 60 percent, according to the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The BJS conducts an annual National Crime Victimization survey of more than 100,000 households, asking if anyone has been the victim of various crimes in the past year. In 1995, the rape/sexual assault rate was reported as 5 per 1,000 American women over age 12. In 2011, the rate had fallen to 1.8 rapes/sexual assaults per 1,000. Meanwhile access to pornography has dramatically increased. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person in possession of a fast Internet connection must be in want of some porn,” the journalist Sebastian Anthony joked last year on the website Extremetech. Dozens of porn platforms are among the top 500 sites in terms of traffic, according to Google’s Doubleclick Ad Planner. The largest, Xvideos, draws 4.4 billion page views per month—three times more than CNN or ESPN, and twice as many as Reddit. A comprehensive 2009 review in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior by the Texas A&M International University psychologist Christopher Ferguson and the University of Texas at San Antonio criminologist Richard Hartley concluded that easy access to porn does not cause rape. “Considered together, the available data about pornography consumption and rape rates in the United States seem to rule out a causal relationship,” Ferguson and Hartley wrote in their summary of the academic literature. “One could even argue that the available research and self-reported and official statistics might provide evidence for the reverse effect; the increasing availability of pornography appears to be associated with a decline in rape.” The Clemson economist Todd Kendall, in a 2006 study supported by the National Bureau of Economic Research, concluded that “Internet… Read more »
Honestly, who still buys these anyway ? I’ve been getting Playboy digitally (no pun intended) for years. I am surprised the print version has lasted this long.
The Tooth Fairy isn’t real? AND THIS IS HOW I FIND OUT?!
While I am not sad to see the magazines, pulled from the shelf, I was never for nor against them. I have a very simple concept…I don’t want to see them, I don’t pick them up. They stay behind that banner, so my children can’t see them, and I don’t touch them…funny…it’s almost like I am an adult and able to make decisions…
oh well…TTM, out.
@39. No, no, no. Do you believe everything you read on the internet? Of course not! This is one of those to be disregarded. Certainly the Tooth Fairy exists. Jeez.
@37. Yeah, I gave up rape about two weeks after I first got online. I think my ISP was Prodigy. You?