New, Larger Exchange Brings Taste of Home to Iraq’s Camp Erbil

Camp Erbil’s larger Exchange provides true tastes of home to the 5,000 military personnel at the installation.

Iraq General Manager Brian Smith

The Exchange celebrated a new era for Warfighters at the tip of the spear this month with the opening of a 2,100 square-foot-store at Camp Erbil in Iraq.

The new store serves 5,000 troops, coalition forces and contractors supporting Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve. The store is larger and carries more comforts of home, a step up from the tent and semi-trailers that had served troops in the past.

“Since our return to Iraq in 2015, the Erbil Exchange has transitioned from a tent at first to two semi-trailers three years ago with 650 square feet of retail space,” said Brian Smith, the Exchange’s general manager in Iraq. “The customers were thrilled as they entered the new store to find an expanded product assortment, and the clean crisp execution of Exchange standards.”

The store features more electronics, shoes, clothing, health and beauty products, food and drinks.

“Everybody who contributed to this collective effort did a great job to expand the Exchange’s ability to serve this military community,” Smith said.  “Our new store has more than enough retail floor space to provide that true taste of home for deployed Soldiers and civilians.”

Since 2015, the Camp Erbil Exchange has gone from a tent to two trailers to a new 2,100-square-foot store.

Pictures by the Army Corps of Engineer’s Transatlantic Division Office of Public Affairs

124th Anniversary FunFact

April 3, 2003

The day two intrepid associates opened the first Exchange in Iraq – literally the back of a Toyota pickup – for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Read all about the transition from pickup to building. At left, Dennis Hatcher, now retired from the Exchange, looks after two of the first customers.

See 800 photos, including dozens from Iraq, in the Exchange Flickr History Album.