The Exchange

Oh my goodness.
My Husband informed me off the cluelessness of the staff here, and I thought he was exaggerating because of the amount of cluelessness he was talking about.
He was not wrong.
I just called and the run around was insane. The group of people here were unable to have an independent thought of their own. It was extremely difficult to get a straight answer from anyone, and i got passed around in the phone for at least 10 minutes.
They ended up selling us a new mower that didn’t work, or have an owners manual, and couldn’t tell us anything about the mower to start.

Dude, if you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all.
This is a PX, BX, NEX … whatever. It’s all the same.
They want to now be cool and call themselves Exchanges. Makes no sense because The Exchange is supposed to be a hip rebranding — similar to YMCA being The Y – but it was already shorten by everyone to PX. (Hardly anyone would state «How about that Post Exchange?»)
Enough etymology for today.
There is stuff here. That stuff is overpriced. Joes (and Janes) don’t have much of a choice — or don’t possess the frugality to notice it (the gouging) — so they shop here. There are no sales taxes, but the increased prices are in itself a form of stupid tax, or tax on the stupid. (However you want to see it.)
Pro Tip: Amazon.
You don’t need to write this down.

The «Bigger» PX on Post.
Food Court/​Dining Options:
Charley’s
Subway Sandwiches
Anthony’s Pizza
Manch Wok
Starbucks
Stores:
UPS Store
Barber Shop
GNC
Optical Shop
PX Grocery/​Clothing
Beauty Salon
**Free WiFi** available

Fort Sam Houston is a military base in Texas with a great Post Exchange. That PX is large, has a whole bunch of smaller stores, and carries just about anything you could need. Fort Knox in Kentucky has a slightly less interesting PX that nevertheless gets the job done if you need to do shopping in the area. Fort Lee’s PX is… just awful. There’s a slightly smaller PXtra that was closer to Golf Company where I was for AIT; that store had all the stuff I needed and wasn’t as far away. But the «big PX» as it was called was unnecessarily far from Golf Company and HHC, and it didn’t really have anything to justify the longer trip.
Let’s start with the food court. The food court, like the ones at all other PXes, is a disaster. There is no semblance of healthy food here with the possible exception of Subway. Manchu Wok serves Americanized Chinese food that can get you full at a low price, but it’s still pretty lacking compared to what else they could have put here. Charley’s is present in all its artery-​clogging glory. Hope you don’t need to take a PT test here, because the PX’s food court surely isn’t going to help you with that!
The main store itself is nothing special. You can probably count on it being really hot because the air conditioning is pretty useless in the building. Even if you had been sweating profusely from the humidity outside, you can’t expect to be cooled off completely after staying here for fifteen minutes. Seriously, this place sucks and there’s no respite from the heat. What also annoys me about this place is that the men’s bathroom always has a couple of sinks that don’t work, and CZee even charges their ludicrous prices for broken internet here of all places.
Do not come to this PX. Go to the smaller one instead. That one has a superior food court, a GameStop, a barber shop, and anything you could feasibly need while you’re in AIT. There’s absolutely no reason to take a 45-​minute walk though the 90-​degree heat or pay two dollars for a taxi to take you here. It’s simply not worth it. I don’t know why the PXes couldn’t have been all standardized across the board and made like the one in San Antonio so that you don’t have a few good ones and a few terrible ones. At least there’s no sales tax here.

It’s an alright store I mean the selection is… Somewhat good honestly the px at fort Jackson was much better! The food court here sucks as well! Items are overpriced as well too

My husband is a Navy retiree, so we decided to check out the Exchange and Commissary at Ft Lee. Shopping at a military installation is usually cheaper and you do not pay sales tax. So depending on what you buy, it can be good deal.
Compared to other bases, particularly the Navy bases in Hampton Roads (Norfolk NAS and Oceana NAS). the Ft Lee Exchange does not offer a particularly wide selection of things.
But I probably spent as much on gas making the trip to Ft Lee as I saved on groceries at the Commissary. So I will stick to grocery shopping closer to home.

I never bought anything from here since everything is OVER PRICED but, I love to be here to kill my free time.
It is amazing how all the Exchange sell everything at so much higher price than any other department stores.
If you still want to pay more money even without paying tax, this is the best place to shop.
By the way, the only electronics that can really save money is on the cell phones and APPLE stuff.
I still love to visit The Exchange to kill my time so they deserve five stars for it.

A little small, but has the basics. Most items are overpriced compared to what you can get them for in most Targets, however when you are stuck on base in AIT or haven’t yet gotten your car, or for whatever reason just do not want to take a drive out this place can be a lifesaver. The food court is mediocre at best, get there early for your best options. The staff, like most army installation employees I’ve seen in the states are disconnected and slightly rude. That being said, it is an option to use for the times you don’t have many options, so suck it up if you have to and enjoy being out of class on a Saturday, picking up the essentials you’ve been missing since you’ve been away from home.

This lobby has been recently remodeled to include some additional square footage for stores. The food court has very limited options. For the first time, in several years, we were told that we had to show our ID to enter the PX. That was new for me.
Prices are not competitive. I have seen better clothing selections at other military installations.

I was very disappointed with this PX… they don’t have a very good selection of items, just the basics. The prices arent competitive. I’d imagine it’s limited because it has been geared towards students but since the installation is expanding I hope the PX will expand it’s products and choices. I think this is the first PX I’ve been to that doesn’t have a furniture store, which surprised me also.

I’ve come to realization that one thing consistent at this place is a bad service. Their employees, from cashiers to «customer service» rep, are all terrible at service. Their prices are not always the best and it isn’t the biggest PX so they only have the basics. Not my favorite PX…

A little bit on the small side but stocked full of pretty much everything a larger one has. It was neat and well organized. people were very helpful and friendly. The garden section was nice.

Greg L’s review is accurate. As with most AAFES, this one is really a rip off: they don’t pay tax but they keep the prices the same (or higher) as the off-​post stores that do. Their selection of goods is fair to middling. They make money off the new troops who can’t leave the installation or just don’t know better. The truly galling thing is the sign touting how much they give to MWR and family programs every year as if that negated the fact that they are ripping troops off.
I do have to give credit to the barbershop for the fact that they now have people who offer a pretty decent cut.