Has anyone here at Paizo heard of the Centric Mall? It's a group of online retailers that link to the Army/Air Force Exchange Service (or AAFES, the company that runs the PX on base) website. By signing in to the AAFES website, a shopper gains access to the Centric Mall site, and the retailers there allow payment by military Star card, and offer discounted pricing for members of the military. I know that Paizo supports our men & women in uniform (like me!), and I'm not trying to guilt you into anything. I was just wondering if you were familiar with the set-up. A modest discount (such as reduced shipping) would be nice, and the Centric Mall provides instant eligibility verification, i.e. only members of the military and their dependantas can sign in. I just thought I'd toss this out there and see what happens. Happy gaming!
Can you really get more stuff at AAFES than you can get at the PX? If the Centric Mall is the AAFES online PX, I wasn't very impressed...
Chief Technical Officer
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Hadn't heard of it, but we'll look into it.
I googled a bit, and visited the centricmall and aafes sites, but a cursory search didn't turn up even a glimmer of information directed at e-commerce sites that want to participate, or even just learn more about it. Do you have any leads?
-Vic.
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Yeah, it sure sounds like a great idea. I'll look into it myself and see if I can find a way to get us in. In the meantime, spread the word about paizo.com! :-)
I did find this [url] http://www.aafes.com/pa/selling/index.html [/url] website that might point you in the right direction. Thanks for the prompt response.
Can you really get more stuff at AAFES than you can get at the PX? If the Centric Mall is the AAFES online PX, I wasn't very impressed...
No, no. The Centric mall is just a bunch of affiliated retailers that give discounts to military customers. The actual AAFES online store has just about everything you need. There are a few things that aren't on the website (regimental crests, for one thing) but you can usually get one if you call the toll-free number.
Yeah, it sure sounds like a great idea. I'll look into it myself and see if I can find a way to get us in. In the meantime, spread the word about paizo.com! :-)
Any progress? Is there anything I can do to assist you? And consider the word spread!
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Chief Technical Officer
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Yeah, it sure sounds like a great idea. I'll look into it myself and see if I can find a way to get us in. In the meantime, spread the word about paizo.com! :-)Any progress? Is there anything I can do to assist you? And consider the word spread!
We've still got a couple of people trying to figure out how one particpates in the program, but nobody's actually getting too far. If you can help with that, let Phil know!
-Vic.
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The AAFES online site has undergone a makeover, and is now slighlty easier to navigate. I'd suggest trying here: http://www.aafes.com/pa/selling/internet.htm
as well as here: http://www.aafes.com/pa/selling/index.html. There's plenty of contact info on these pages to help point you in the right direction. I hope this helps.
*bump*
Any luck, or should I just let this die a quiet death?
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Being former military myself I used to love getting a copy of Dragon while I was out deployed somewhere... sitting in the middle of the desert or january triple threat under 10 feet of snow and you got a dozen guys sharing your magazine and excited about the next time they get back to the billets to play
I passed the new infomation on to Phil, but I doubt he's had time to do anything with it yet.-Vic.
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I can certainly understand the constraints of work and the demands that it places upon a person. Thank you for the time and consideration that you've given this so far.
I can certainly understand the constraints of work and the demands that it places upon a person. Thank you for the time and consideration that you've given this so far.
I'm workin' on it, I swear :)
You guys are awesome for even considering this.
I'm active duty Navy and I can tell you that when our ships deploy, internet access gets cut down to a few very specific military websites. The Navy Exchange and its online Mall are one of those specific sites.
If you did link yourselves to it, you'd open up a lot of buying opportunities during a 6+ month deployment.
Great suggestion, Ulric.
I wanted to add a discovery to this topic.
Cruising through the Navy Exchange online mall, I found that Books-a-Million is shoppable thru the exchange program. However, while Dragon magazine is purchasable thru the site, Dungeon is not.
Would it be an easy phone call to say "Hey BAMM! Offer our other magazine on your website, foo!"?
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Chief Technical Officer
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Would it be an easy phone call to say "Hey BAMM! Offer our other magazine on your website, foo!"?I'll have our circulation manager check it out.
-Vic.
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Apparently the number of titles they can offer is restricted, and while we solicited both Dragon and Dungeon to them, they decided that they only want Dragon right now. They apparently revisit the list quarterly; we'll try to get them to pick up Dungeon again next time. I don't know if there's a place for you to leave feedback, but if there is, it couldn't hurt to tell them you want it.
-Vic.
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