employee spotlight: david leonhardt
Aaron Pylinski | Community WriterDavid Leonhardt came to work at the Marine Corps Exchange (MCX) by way of the car rental facility. He and his wife have been here since December 2015 and now have a young son who was born here last year. David was born and raised in Morganton, a western North Carolina mountain town. He graduated from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and then took a job in the logistics industry in Savannah, Georgia. He met his wife there, and they decided to jump on an opportunity for a bit of adventure and moved to Iwakuni.
Now that they’re here, David is a member of the MCCS family where he’s creating cohesiveness within the Retail & Services staff as well as with other activities across our organization. Our retail and services cover everything from merchandise at the MCX to facilities like the Hangar or Crossroads Food Court. We were able to steal a minute of his time to get his thoughts on MCCS, living in Iwakuni, and helping the community in every way possible when it comes to retail and services.
What is your position at the MCX?
As the Retail & Services Administrative Specialist at times I am like a liaison. A majority of my time is devoted to the retail side, mostly because my office is at the MCX. That doesn’t mean I don’t do a lot for services and a lot of times I’m the point of contact for many of the other divisions inside of MCCS. I try to facilitate things to get them done by assisting managers and employees. My work is not customer facing, though. I do the work behind the scenes to make sure that employees and managers have everything they need to get their jobs accomplished.
Tell me a little about the team that you work with at the MCX?
How much has staffing increased at the MCX and how does that positively affect the community’s experience in the store?
That’s been a big focus for not only the Retail & Services division but the entire MCCS as a whole. The more associates we have in the store, trained, up to speed, and in front of customers or stocking shelves, it turns into a huge win for the community. When these positions are filled, and we’re not spread thin, we can better serve the customer. You can really see the wheels moving when we have enough associates to help the customers that are coming in the door. There are days when we get merchandise from the warehouse and have pallets on top of pallets on the second floor. There are associates stocking shelves, and you can see that the customers are happy to see the shelves being stocked. The customer feels like, “Okay, they’re doing everything they can to get these products on the shelves and get us what we need.”