The KMC officially sucks
I've been somewhat reluctant to make such a statement, and to make such a post, however, after being in the Ramstein/KMC area for 10 years now, I have to rant and rip on the powers that be for their incompetency.
- Number one, first and foremost is that eyesore of all eyesores; that crass cathedral of commercialism known as the KMC Mall. Yes, the KMC Mall. It was 5 years overdue, and $200 million over budget, and the brainchild of Doc Fogelsong (supposedly). I can't confirm that last part, however that's what I've heard from two or three different folks throughout the years. Every TDY and deployed person comes through the KMC Mall, and makes the place feel even more like a tourist trap than it is for something that locals are meant to enjoy. Considering that it is literally right across the street from the AMC terminal, it's like one giant toilet for people to come in, do their business, and then get back on the airplane for their trip to where ever. Come in, invade, buy our stuff, and then leave a huge mess for us to clean up afterwards. Nice.
The KMC Mall royally sucks because it's a blemish to everyone who lives within the local area. Traffic on base royally sucks because of it, and the parking lot is always packed with people coming in from all over USAFE.Why? Because the BX at their location is meager by comparison, and they want to have the "mall" experience like they miss having in the States. When this place finally opened in 2009, people literally were bused in from England, Spain, Italy, and other parts of Europe, just to see what the excitement was all about, even going so far to spend up to a week here, gawking in stupidity and amazement. Don'tchoo know, silly rabbit? The mall doesn't have cool shops that enhance the shopping experience; no, no, no. Instead, it has crappy German stores like "Nanu Nana" which sell crap items at ridiculous prices, and AAFES takes 25% of the cut (another reason why I despite AAFES). Nobody buys that crap Polish Pottery, and while the Hunkmoller lingerie shop may have some great posters of semi-naked chicks wearing bras and panties, everyone wants Victoria's Secrets instead. The t-shirt shop which used to make some way cool video game t-shirts for me, closed due to some ass-hat at AAFES deciding that it wasn't what people "wanted". So, they closed it down, only to replace it with some stupid Garmin GPS shop, where you could buy the same exact Garmin Nuvi that you could buy inside the electronics department, and some bullshit kinda golf ball that measures its location using the same technology. Really. Seriously. They quickly found out that nobody wanted to buy this suburban douchebag's wet dream, and the Garmin shop closed within 3 months of it opening. Now, there's some hipster wanna-be upscale art store has opened up, but like it will quickly discover that it will lose profit and close within the one or two months that it opened.
The Kickz.com hip-hop shop is an eyesore within an eyesore, because we don't need anymore wanna-be thugs and wiggers polluting this place with their slovenly attire. It's bad enough they're allowed to reproduce, let's not enable their lifestyle any further. Do we really need to import the ghetto lifestyle to Germany and turn them into Euro-wiggers? I don't care about your "fresh beatz" and "dope" this or that. Take your shitty music, hip-hop ba-donka-donk ghetto fashions back to the US where they belong. European life and culture is under enough duress with all these "refugee" assholes coming in from Africa and the Middle East.
Then there's a Coffee Bike kiosk which sells organic coffee out of this thing made to look like it's a roaming coffee shop on bicycle wheels. Gayest. Fucking. Thing. Ever. The ad shows some woman with a cup of coffee close to her face, like she's about to give it a blowjob or something, possibly snowball it. Who knows. All I know is that every time I see the coffee stand and every time I see the ad of this woman, it makes me wanna wretch. Nevermind the fact that there's also a Starbuck's coffee in the middle of the mall, and a Cinnabon on the other end of the mall, where you can get pretty much the same thing, just different label. Are people that fucking stupid to need 3 coffee vendors under one roof?
So how many people like to eat at Chili's? Crickets chirping, yes I can tell. Well, Ramstein has not one but TWO Chili's on the base! The main one located inside the E-Club, and then Chili's Too (yes, misspelled intentionally on their part) in the KMC Mall. Why the fuck do we need 2 Chili's? And to make matters even more inane, they even sell Chili's frozen entrees at the Commissary (but we'll get to that in just a moment). So, you can have 3 sources for this substandard food, which gives everybody the shits right afterwards. Nice.
And then of course, the mall itself, is a magnet for the "KMC's finest". Every dependopotamus and their half-wit offspring congregates there like it's their home away from home. Kids are running around unsupervised, crying and screaming, and annoying the hell out of people who would like to enjoy some modicum of privacy. I seriously avoid the KMC Mall as much as I possibly can, and will go there only to watch the occasional movie, or if I need to use the bank. Even then, I would prefer to use the bank at the Southside area, or on Vogelweh all together.
Speaking of Southside, the Southside Shoppette used to be an enjoyable alternative, before they shut it down in 2012. AAFES said they were going to "remodel" it and reopen it in 2013, however that never came to pass. Instead, they use it for storage of all the crap they can't sell otherwise. Not only did they screw all the airmen who live in the dorms on that side of the base, they also screwed everyone who works within that general proximity. Honestly, if it wasn't for MOMS being there, I would have no other reason besides banking to go that direction.
On a side note, an undisclosed source told me once that AAFES does not pay any rent or utilities for their daily operations on Ramstein, despite making $1 million a day in combined sales. Their clause with Uncle Scam is that they get away from paying the bills scott-free because of the "service" they provide the troops.
- Number two. The new Shoppette. Poor design, even worse parking. TDY aircrews are always buying cases of German beer to take back to the States, causing delays for everyone in line who just wants to pay for their gasoline, or buy a Monster energy drink before going to work.Yes, in some cases, it's shopping carts full of crates of beer, and it's people who are high enough rank to know better. I don't care if they're a Chief or some colonel from some reserve unit, it looks bad, and it's wholly inappropriate. Besides, they're not supposed to bring liquids on board the plane, and are subjected to the same FAA rules that their civilian counterparts are responsible to comply with. If I can only bring 500 milliliters of water on an AMC flight, they should be just as accountable.
- Number three - The "K" in downtown K-town. Yes, Germans aren't satisfied to bring the level of social consciousness to an all new low, so they built a mall right in the middle of K-town. Not only does this make driving and navigating that much more difficult to begin with, but it also brings out the Euro-wiggers and beggars from all over the immediate area. I went inside there once out of curiosity, and they have a fucking Nanu-Nana inside it, and a KICKZ.com shop too. Seriously? SMH. Besides that, there are one or two grocery stores and the random clothing stores which were once found outside along the main promenade. Now, those shops are closing up, just so they can get inside the mall, making the surrounding area look like a ghost-town. And the best part? Not after being open for less than half a year, the place already has graffiti spray-painted outside the parking lot. Fuck freedom of expression, this is why we can't have nice things. Some Banksy-asshole wanna-be has to tag and ruin an otherwise brand new establishment.
Number four. Vogelweh. Vogelweh is becoming a ghost-town, much like Sembach, because of that stupid KMC Mall. Back in 2009, they tore down the BX and food court there, all in the name of "progress". Since then, people who live there are treated like crap and practically forgotten by the Air Force. Sembach itself, is becoming a ghost-town, despite the fact more Army units will be permanently stationed there. The commissary there is about to close, and base housing has been torn down completely. For single airmen and soldiers who have limited transportation capabilities, this really puts a serious dent in their time here.
And number five. Commissary shopping sucks. I cannot underscore this part enough. People are idiots, and WIC is out of control. An undisclosed source told me that last month, they processed $53,000 worth of WIC checks alone. Seriously. Just last night we had more fucking WIC checks get processed than I have ever witnessed in my entire life. One cashier I know told me he processed 30 of them within an hour. W.T.F. Another cashier had an estimated 12 - 15 in her till when I relieved her for break. The truth of the matter is that the majority of people on WIC in the military don't need it, considering they get a stipend for housing allowance, COLA, and utilities. Little Cody, Pablito, and De-Dronk Dronk can survive just fine without all that fancy baby food, baby formula, and baby Air Jordans. Perhaps it's asking too much for parents to learn how to cook meals for their infants and toddlers the way their parents and grandparents did before LBJ's disastrous "War on Poverty" became a way of life for so many Americans. The best part about it is that I heard some 13 year old bagger kid innocuously call it like it is..."free food". Out of the mouth of babes, eh? I knew that Fraud, Waste, and Abuse was a common thing in the military, but this is just of of control.
I really don't like making these kinds of posts, however this kinda stuff really annoys the hell out of me, because it's been condoned and reinforced to the point where it won't change for the better. Ultimately, everything that people buy will end up on Ramstein Yard Sales, since it's all crap to begin with anyways.
Ugh.
- Number one, first and foremost is that eyesore of all eyesores; that crass cathedral of commercialism known as the KMC Mall. Yes, the KMC Mall. It was 5 years overdue, and $200 million over budget, and the brainchild of Doc Fogelsong (supposedly). I can't confirm that last part, however that's what I've heard from two or three different folks throughout the years. Every TDY and deployed person comes through the KMC Mall, and makes the place feel even more like a tourist trap than it is for something that locals are meant to enjoy. Considering that it is literally right across the street from the AMC terminal, it's like one giant toilet for people to come in, do their business, and then get back on the airplane for their trip to where ever. Come in, invade, buy our stuff, and then leave a huge mess for us to clean up afterwards. Nice.
The KMC Mall royally sucks because it's a blemish to everyone who lives within the local area. Traffic on base royally sucks because of it, and the parking lot is always packed with people coming in from all over USAFE.Why? Because the BX at their location is meager by comparison, and they want to have the "mall" experience like they miss having in the States. When this place finally opened in 2009, people literally were bused in from England, Spain, Italy, and other parts of Europe, just to see what the excitement was all about, even going so far to spend up to a week here, gawking in stupidity and amazement. Don'tchoo know, silly rabbit? The mall doesn't have cool shops that enhance the shopping experience; no, no, no. Instead, it has crappy German stores like "Nanu Nana" which sell crap items at ridiculous prices, and AAFES takes 25% of the cut (another reason why I despite AAFES). Nobody buys that crap Polish Pottery, and while the Hunkmoller lingerie shop may have some great posters of semi-naked chicks wearing bras and panties, everyone wants Victoria's Secrets instead. The t-shirt shop which used to make some way cool video game t-shirts for me, closed due to some ass-hat at AAFES deciding that it wasn't what people "wanted". So, they closed it down, only to replace it with some stupid Garmin GPS shop, where you could buy the same exact Garmin Nuvi that you could buy inside the electronics department, and some bullshit kinda golf ball that measures its location using the same technology. Really. Seriously. They quickly found out that nobody wanted to buy this suburban douchebag's wet dream, and the Garmin shop closed within 3 months of it opening. Now, there's some hipster wanna-be upscale art store has opened up, but like it will quickly discover that it will lose profit and close within the one or two months that it opened.
The Kickz.com hip-hop shop is an eyesore within an eyesore, because we don't need anymore wanna-be thugs and wiggers polluting this place with their slovenly attire. It's bad enough they're allowed to reproduce, let's not enable their lifestyle any further. Do we really need to import the ghetto lifestyle to Germany and turn them into Euro-wiggers? I don't care about your "fresh beatz" and "dope" this or that. Take your shitty music, hip-hop ba-donka-donk ghetto fashions back to the US where they belong. European life and culture is under enough duress with all these "refugee" assholes coming in from Africa and the Middle East.
Then there's a Coffee Bike kiosk which sells organic coffee out of this thing made to look like it's a roaming coffee shop on bicycle wheels. Gayest. Fucking. Thing. Ever. The ad shows some woman with a cup of coffee close to her face, like she's about to give it a blowjob or something, possibly snowball it. Who knows. All I know is that every time I see the coffee stand and every time I see the ad of this woman, it makes me wanna wretch. Nevermind the fact that there's also a Starbuck's coffee in the middle of the mall, and a Cinnabon on the other end of the mall, where you can get pretty much the same thing, just different label. Are people that fucking stupid to need 3 coffee vendors under one roof?
So how many people like to eat at Chili's? Crickets chirping, yes I can tell. Well, Ramstein has not one but TWO Chili's on the base! The main one located inside the E-Club, and then Chili's Too (yes, misspelled intentionally on their part) in the KMC Mall. Why the fuck do we need 2 Chili's? And to make matters even more inane, they even sell Chili's frozen entrees at the Commissary (but we'll get to that in just a moment). So, you can have 3 sources for this substandard food, which gives everybody the shits right afterwards. Nice.
And then of course, the mall itself, is a magnet for the "KMC's finest". Every dependopotamus and their half-wit offspring congregates there like it's their home away from home. Kids are running around unsupervised, crying and screaming, and annoying the hell out of people who would like to enjoy some modicum of privacy. I seriously avoid the KMC Mall as much as I possibly can, and will go there only to watch the occasional movie, or if I need to use the bank. Even then, I would prefer to use the bank at the Southside area, or on Vogelweh all together.
Speaking of Southside, the Southside Shoppette used to be an enjoyable alternative, before they shut it down in 2012. AAFES said they were going to "remodel" it and reopen it in 2013, however that never came to pass. Instead, they use it for storage of all the crap they can't sell otherwise. Not only did they screw all the airmen who live in the dorms on that side of the base, they also screwed everyone who works within that general proximity. Honestly, if it wasn't for MOMS being there, I would have no other reason besides banking to go that direction.
On a side note, an undisclosed source told me once that AAFES does not pay any rent or utilities for their daily operations on Ramstein, despite making $1 million a day in combined sales. Their clause with Uncle Scam is that they get away from paying the bills scott-free because of the "service" they provide the troops.
- Number two. The new Shoppette. Poor design, even worse parking. TDY aircrews are always buying cases of German beer to take back to the States, causing delays for everyone in line who just wants to pay for their gasoline, or buy a Monster energy drink before going to work.Yes, in some cases, it's shopping carts full of crates of beer, and it's people who are high enough rank to know better. I don't care if they're a Chief or some colonel from some reserve unit, it looks bad, and it's wholly inappropriate. Besides, they're not supposed to bring liquids on board the plane, and are subjected to the same FAA rules that their civilian counterparts are responsible to comply with. If I can only bring 500 milliliters of water on an AMC flight, they should be just as accountable.
- Number three - The "K" in downtown K-town. Yes, Germans aren't satisfied to bring the level of social consciousness to an all new low, so they built a mall right in the middle of K-town. Not only does this make driving and navigating that much more difficult to begin with, but it also brings out the Euro-wiggers and beggars from all over the immediate area. I went inside there once out of curiosity, and they have a fucking Nanu-Nana inside it, and a KICKZ.com shop too. Seriously? SMH. Besides that, there are one or two grocery stores and the random clothing stores which were once found outside along the main promenade. Now, those shops are closing up, just so they can get inside the mall, making the surrounding area look like a ghost-town. And the best part? Not after being open for less than half a year, the place already has graffiti spray-painted outside the parking lot. Fuck freedom of expression, this is why we can't have nice things. Some Banksy-asshole wanna-be has to tag and ruin an otherwise brand new establishment.
Number four. Vogelweh. Vogelweh is becoming a ghost-town, much like Sembach, because of that stupid KMC Mall. Back in 2009, they tore down the BX and food court there, all in the name of "progress". Since then, people who live there are treated like crap and practically forgotten by the Air Force. Sembach itself, is becoming a ghost-town, despite the fact more Army units will be permanently stationed there. The commissary there is about to close, and base housing has been torn down completely. For single airmen and soldiers who have limited transportation capabilities, this really puts a serious dent in their time here.
And number five. Commissary shopping sucks. I cannot underscore this part enough. People are idiots, and WIC is out of control. An undisclosed source told me that last month, they processed $53,000 worth of WIC checks alone. Seriously. Just last night we had more fucking WIC checks get processed than I have ever witnessed in my entire life. One cashier I know told me he processed 30 of them within an hour. W.T.F. Another cashier had an estimated 12 - 15 in her till when I relieved her for break. The truth of the matter is that the majority of people on WIC in the military don't need it, considering they get a stipend for housing allowance, COLA, and utilities. Little Cody, Pablito, and De-Dronk Dronk can survive just fine without all that fancy baby food, baby formula, and baby Air Jordans. Perhaps it's asking too much for parents to learn how to cook meals for their infants and toddlers the way their parents and grandparents did before LBJ's disastrous "War on Poverty" became a way of life for so many Americans. The best part about it is that I heard some 13 year old bagger kid innocuously call it like it is..."free food". Out of the mouth of babes, eh? I knew that Fraud, Waste, and Abuse was a common thing in the military, but this is just of of control.
I really don't like making these kinds of posts, however this kinda stuff really annoys the hell out of me, because it's been condoned and reinforced to the point where it won't change for the better. Ultimately, everything that people buy will end up on Ramstein Yard Sales, since it's all crap to begin with anyways.
Ugh.
posted by Machine at 4:01 PM
0 comments
