European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 15, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 letters the stars and stripes readers comment on response by cafes i would like in comment on it. Col. Charlie while s response to a recent if her about cafes reasons for carrying Only super unleaded super leaded and diesel fuels at us pus while 1 do not doubt at All that the customers arc buying these fuels More than unleaded regular and rest rid ions on storage tanks is reasonable i just wish that a a h s would Stop confusing cause Wilh effect. Tic main reason that people Are not buying unleaded regular fuel is because to is not available at most cafes stations where most of us fill up. It unleaded regular were available More people would buy it. This is just one More example of cafes trying to convince us Hal we want what cafes wants us to want. Where do these surveys come from thai la. Col. White refers to in 15 years of service 1 have never been surveyed by cafes and never heard of anyone else tilling out any either while they generally do a Good Job of bringing us some of the products and services we desire i have grown quite tired of the continual Stream of self sync Ralpd Back Pat Ting. If \ hear one More time How the cafes fashion h Lycra Are doing such a wonderful Job gelling us deals on the latest clothing styles i will probably choke. I could cite the Crample of the Ralph Lauren sweaters at the Hahn cd change in the fall of 19b7, which were in tiie fall 86 Spiegel Catalon. It was probably really easy to get a Good Price on discontinued merchandise. So cafes keep up the work Hal you do. Just Stop exaggerating and stretching the truth. Master Manes Hahn a West Germany i be been Reading the stars and stripes daily for Over 12 Yean and i Nave often marvelled at some of the replies to serious questions hat appear in your letters Section. Most of the replies come from High ranking a cos officers and civilians and this is Why i Marvel at them i sometimes find it hard to believe thai these people believe their own answers let alone think that the Reading Public is dumb enough to believe them. Case in Point a Wriler from per masons asked when can t expect to be Able to buy unleaded regular Gas As Well As coupons for it from cafes this is a very Good question. Cafes either has t realized a problem exists won t admit a problem exists or does t rare thai the problem exists for Many people cafes regular a cheaper than super. You Don t Cany regular and Many locations have no Esso stations in the immediate area. La. Col. Charlie while replied that for environmental reasons German Law prohibits cafes from adding More storage tanks. I would like to know which Ger Man Law prohibits this. 1 can read German and 1 would like to read this Law. The Only Law that i know of concerning underground storage tanks says they will be double walled and have a leakage alarm. It. Col. White also stated our limited number of storage tanks prevents us from offering the full Range of fuel at most of our service i Don t know How Jong the colonel has been in country that he does t know that cafes used to sell leaded regular that must have been stored some place. Why can t these tanks be used for unleaded regular i you ask tins question of management at Pitburg you Are told that the tanks have to be cleaned first and it costs Loo it. Col. While also stated Hal surveys show that the majority of our customers arc buying super unleaded super leaded and diesel of course they Are. Aaf-e5 does t sell anything else cafes please answer the question Wilh a simple yes or no. Will you Ever offer unleaded regular of no. Why not if yes where and when As Long As i m writing. 1 have a couple of other questions concerning fuel. Why is diesel cheaper than regular on the Economy and More expensive than super on base if you had 10 quit Selling leaded regular for Environ Mcneal reasons Why on you still sell leaded super Thomm j. Ran Dyke Pitburg a West Germany Well cafes. You did it Orjin. You managed to give a two paragraph answer of double talk and dribble claiming that German Law prevents you from adding More storage tanks. Can you explain Why you did not use the existing Lanks at least one that the Normal leaded Gas was in to put unleaded regular Gas in or if unleaded regular was Al ready being sold Why you d id not leave one Lank there it is perfectly logical Hal if you had unleaded regular to begin with you would keep it and use the tank that the regular leaded was in for a More demanded Gas or if you did not sell regular unleaded you could now do so since the Sale of regularly add has been outlawed. I agree with the writer. You arc evidently trying to Jack up your profit margins. Your big problem is that you do not take the needs of your customers its seriously As you should. Why should you you have a captive audience in Europe you feel that you can charge High prices Stock whatever you feel will sell Well and eventually out of desperation we will buy it. Do you realize thai the average Price of video rent als is i a night in the Stales you charge j2. J3. Even $4 per night. In the a. Year the Price of buying a video has dropped drastically. As much business As you do in your video stores you would still make a profit if you lowered your rental rates. 1 have family in Illinois Ohio Tennessee Florida and Alabama. I pay 36 cents More for the unleaded super Gas 1 use than what s being charged Back Home. Yes you Are expensive and no you Don t show your customers that you care. Maybe if cafes were no allowed to monopolize 90 percent of every military installation in Europe they would Sis i caring especially if they had 10 compete for our business in the Stales 3 never shopped Al cafes and 1 never bought Gas at the cafes pumps. I could always find bargains on the same items elsewhere and 1 am still finding bargains elsewhere. I find i can use the Catalon and pay shipping weight and still gel things cheaper. To All of you who need or want to Purchase regular unleaded Gas keep a Book of gasoline coupons in your car and use the Esso. Dop l give cafes the satisfaction of making you pay higher prices for a higher octane of gasoline if you Don t need it. Name withheld wild Flucken West German editor s note it. Col. Charlie while Public Effa Lri officer to. Cafes in apr replies ii appears ital a Briefe plan Atlon about the feted of German Laws on Rosaline Silas Only confused the Issue 11 me like few tint lines to clarify. Cafes Europe added unleaded fuels la our stations for two reasons 1, when the demand level for unleaded fuel based on Coupon Sain and use reached Lor i Ihil justified he addition of unleaded Ltd b. When cafes Europe was informed that the fed in Republic of Germany was Banning the lilt of regu Lar leaded fuel. To put things in the proper perspective we began conversions of Gas station in the full of 1986, Long before the Law Trent into effect on Jin. 1,1988, ind used existing storage tanks . Tanks which held leaded Reg ular la hold super unleaded gasoline. The reason for super unleaded was Bawd on Sain volume. In other words not so much a customer Surrey but a Survey of customer buying habits. When unleaded products were not available Al out stations Coupon Laleff and usage reflected that super unleaded represented the majority of the unleaded sales volume. It was this Slat ii Teal data upon which our decision was based. Where we did hive sufficient in ground Lank capacity we Alia added the Normal unleaded products. We presently have 11 stations that offer both unleaded product and Ore continuing to review other stations to determine what is necessary in add Normal unleaded gasoline. The stations offering both unleaded product Are Augsburg Berlin Darmstadt Erlanson Furth Folda Tessen Lilinau Heilbronn Felpheim and wild Flecken. We continue to sell Premium leaded gasoline because German Law allows the Sale and there is a sufficient demand for leaded gasoline. The writers May have already noticed the ,4rice decrease for All types of gasoline. Our prices reflect oar ability la negotiate with european distributors. Cafes Purchase gasoline leu All taxes. The local Rcd Oarr reflects the Price of gasoline with taxes added la the Effort to encourage germans la buy fuels Vilh lower pollution emis Sion the German government applied fas tax to unleaded and Elnel fuels. Even though the actual Cut front the refineries is higher the Price b loner. I information we hive received indicates the German government will soon eliminate the tax break on diesel fuel. When that happens diesel Fael prices Hill aim be higher on he commercial Market. True prices in Europe for gasoline an higher than average compared with the prices in the Stales but when you consider cafes Purchase gasoline shipped to and refined in Europe not the unite Stales i believe you will in free the prices Are reasonable when compared to prices on the european Economy. In regard la the writer s question an video tape rental prices we checked and found the average Price for video rental in the states la si.96 per Day. Iii a right inline with our is weekday Price and s3 for the weekend. There Are some convenience stores which offer a limited selection of tapes at 99 cents per Day. There Are also some outlet which have manager s specials and other incentive prices and there Are outlets which have much higher prices. 9 an says not playing a hit is censorship Lane and other programs prodded by the armed forces radloandtelevwonservke., we can t prevent a listener from hearing Nomel tone in a sons that in t there. Nor can we account for what Well 1 thought i d heard about everything on an radio until today. The people in my Branch listen to an nearly the entire Day. I listen to it off and on in my office. This afternoon i was working in my office and happened to be Lutc Ning. Although i was listening absentmindedly the lyrics of one song caught my attention i just could t believe what heard so i turned up the vol ume to make sure. In fact i had to listen to the entire song to convince myself that i misunderstood the lyrics. Finally the last measure of the song convinced me. However that was three minutes later. The song is probably entitled push it Good i am not sure since no do announced it but that was the main chorus in it. However As 1 said. The pronunciation of the lyrics caught my attention. I had to listen to the entire song to determine that they were nol singing Pussy Good it s Tough enough in this military to be taken seriously without this Tush being played on the radio in the office. Can you imagine me trying to Lead counsel give orders or guidance or even Chat while Pussy Good plays in the background or suppose i Wini into another office such As i he orderly room or Capo. And that was playing i was extremely offended by thai song. Regardless of what the singers were trying losing the end result is questionable. If i had to listen carefully to Ilic entire song to determine the actual words How Long will it talc other people stuff like Hal is just not for the office. No ifs or buts. 1 Hope an takes this to Hean and examines the material that it broadcasts. I like listening to an. It plays in most offices and in Many common areas Hall ways Foyers Etc on my base . We can t turn it of but an should take the initiative to keep songs like that either for late night broadcast or better yet on the album and off the air. Name and location withheld editor s note Manny Levy broadcast Man Ager an Europe replies an listeners make it Clear they want to hear the hits lilt radio u equally important in americans in the United slates As Well As those serving overseas. Formal and informal audience surveys Tell of that nearly 90 percent of oof audience likes to hear the current hits. The song push if by Salt v Pepa spent Al least is weeks on the billboard hot 100," and 11 weeks in the top 40. It received extensive play in the United Stales and still has not alien off the charts Al the time this letter Wai written. An played the no because it is a hit to have done otherwise would be to censor it by omission denying our audience a Sang millions heard and enjoyed while listen ing to thousands of is. Radio stations. Keeping push or any popular song off an is 1m-possible.evea if an in re played that tune within the local shows we produce i Europe it would still air on american top the countdown Don Akk Dees american Musk Charlie tuna Chris come listeners out veld into the lyrics of a swig. No one Al an wants to Force people to listen la songs they Don t like for any reason. But acting an music police endlessly Loo Long for lyrics that an potentially questionable would divert attention from our main task which is to provide important immunity and command information messages along Wilh the music the majority of our listeners want to accordance with department of defense guidance an broadcasts news and music from the United states Walhout editing or censorship. Censoring items Hal May be disagreeable for some listeners would Lake away the network s credibility Wilh All segments of the audience. An radio is not designed to serve As a background music system for the work place As muck ill even though it is used by Many for Iii purpose. Radios should be Lumc off if dividing mention Between a sen Lee member s Job and the radio interferes with duty a lilies. We want people to listen but not at the expense of health or a Leader counsels. I orders or otherwise leads undivided attention should be directed lathe Leader. This is Best done w Ith the radio turned off. Emphasis would Best be placed on the Quality of the counselling not the appropriateness of background music
