A look into the day-to-day operations at one of our Base Supply Centers
If you read our last blog, you learned about what a Base Supply Center (BSC) is and how they help us employ even more people who are blind and visually impaired across the country.
But we wanted to dive even deeper into what life is like on-base—specifically at a BSC. Luckily, our Manager of BSC Operations, Lindy Cobb, has been working on base for almost two decades now and was willing to let us in on what life on Vandenberg Air Force Base looks like to her.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Very busy, fast-paced workdays! The store gets a lot of traffic, which means helping customers and assisting employees. As a manager, a lot of days also include conference calls with corporate and store managers from the other BSCs.
What are some similarities of a BSC to a typical office supply store?
We sell standard office supplies as you might see at Staples or Office Depot, but other than that there are more differences than similarities.
What are some differences?
We stock a wide variety of products here from office supplies, cleaning supplies, safety equipment,
deployment gear, and much more. If it’s something the military needs, we can get it. But these aren’t usually small orders. A lot of times they are placing bulk orders. Think 10,000 of something. We also can’t sell to just anyone. They have to be a certified General Services Administration (GSA) Purchase Cardholder through the government.
What is something people should know about buying from a BSC?
That every time a purchase is made from one of our BSC’s, it creates more jobs for the blind and visually impaired. This is the most important thing to know.
What is a common misconception about BSCs?
Many times people assume our prices will be higher than our commercial counterparts, but this is
rarely true. A lot of customers don’t realize our full range of sourcing capabilities as well—we can
source just about anything.
How has working here impacted your life?
This company has given me so many more opportunities than I ever could have imagined by helping
me learn and grow as a professional. The mission of employing the blind and serving our military
is inspiring and makes it so much easier and rewarding to come to work every day. I love what we
do!
Anything else you want to tell people about life on base?
Working here at Vandenberg is rewarding and inspiring. There is a comradery on-base amongst the
active-duty military and I feel like this spills over to all individuals on base. There really is a vibe here
that we are all in this together.
Our employees like Lindy that work on base are essential to our mission of working to help the military serve while creating jobs for the blind and visually impaired. If you missed last month’s blog about what a BSC is and why we operate on base, you can read it here.
