There are State Department posts in this world that qualify as "consumables posts". Usually, these posts are located in countries where the local economy isn't doing so well, or which are too far off mainland USA to offer every day staples like peanut butter, pancake mix and Fruit Loops. (Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Ashgabat, Belgrade, Grenada,
Guangzhou, Kampala, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Port au Prince, Rangoon,
Shanghai, Skopje, etc. This list is not extensive and is erratically
quoted.)
I'm being only partly cynical here, and partly envious. The State Department does look after its people. They may not get paid as much as an equivalent free marketer, but they certainly have a lot of perks. One of those perks are consumables - when you are posted to a country where the supply situation is bad or where certain items (determined by long lists and market research) are comparably pricey, you will get a consumables shipment.
The weight allowance for shipment of consumables has been
established at 1,134 kilograms or 2,500 net pounds for a two-year
tour and 1,701 kilograms or 3,750 net pounds for a three-year tour
for each employee, regardless of family status.
[No, I don't understand the "regardless of family status" either - only a person without kids can come up with something like that.]
In any case, we are not State Department but Yerevan is a consumables post. When we underwrote the contract to come and save a certain project that had been running haywire for two years, Doug's new company handed me the so-called "FAM guide" and told me that we were entitled to everything in there. That included the consumables.
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