About NEXCOM

About NEXCOM

Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM) has come a long way since the days when bumboats sold their wares to Sailors aboard Naval vessels in the 19th century. Back then, Sailors had to depend on these unreliable boats to get their personal items while aboard ship. The bumboats, small vessels that pulled alongside U.S. Navy ships, exchanged merchandise for money by pails lowered over the side by the crew of the Navy ship. Goods sold by the bumboats were normally inferior and sold at high prices.

By 1909, the Naval Appropriations Act established the first official resale activities, Ships Stores and Commissary Stores. In 1944, the Secretary of the Navy permitted ships stores to be operated on all Navy bases. Then in 1945, Captain Wheelock H. Bingham, SC, USNR, recommended all resale activities operate like a large chain of retail stores and a central office be established to oversee the operation of the ‘Navy Resale System.’

The Secretary of the Navy approved the Bingham Plan which stated, in part, that the Ships Service Stores Ashore be operated with non-appropriated funds. The new central office for the Navy Ships Store Office was established in Brooklyn, New York, on April 1, 1946.

This command was later renamed ‘Navy Exchange Service Command’ and is now headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The NEXCOM Enterprise encompasses seven business lines, boasting a workforce of 16,000 located around the globe. The command’s mission is to provide quality goods and services at a savings and support Navy quality of life programs for active duty military, retirees, reservists, veterans, Department of Defense (DoD) civilians and military families.

NEXCOM’s parent commands is Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP). While Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility (NCTRF) as well as certain positions around the NEXCOM Enterprise are financed through appropriated funds (APF), most of the NEXCOM Enterprise is a non-appropriated fund instrumentality (NAFI) of the DoD and the Department of the Navy (DoN). Therefore, most of NEXCOM’s expenses are paid with its earnings and not taxpayer dollars.