The Exchange’s Korea Distribution Center: A Brief History
The Exchange’s Korea Distribution Center operated at Camp Market from 1975 to 2020. Pictured, pallet area at the Camp Market DC is nearly cleared during the facility’s move to U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in November 2020.
Before the 2020 opening of the Exchange’s U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys distribution center, the Camp Market DC ensured Korea-area Exchanges had the items Warfighters and their families needed for more than 45 years.
Located in Incheon, South Korea, about 40 miles north of USAG Humphreys, Camp Market was originally built in the mid-1930s by the Imperial Japanese Army to support troops in Manchuria, a region of China.
After Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II, the U.S. Army established Army Support Command Korea at Camp Market. In 1950, during the Korean War, the area was taken over by North Korean troops before being retaken by United Nations forces the following year.
Items at the Camp Market distribution center stand ready to be moved to the new DC at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys on Nov. 17, 2020.
Twenty years later, Camp Market was integrated into the U.S. Army Garrison at Yongsan. In 1975, the Exchange moved its distribution center from near the Port of Incheon, where it had been located since the Korean War, to Camp Market.
In 2004, the U.S. Army initiated the Yongsan Relocation Plan to move most U.S. Forces and command activities in Korea—including Camp Market—to Humphreys. The Exchange started planning to move the distribution center in 2012 and completed the relocation in December 2020.
Built by the Republic of Korea, the new distribution center is the Exchange’s largest in the Pacific, with more than double the pallet storage capacity of Camp Market. The facility also includes a vehicle maintenance shop and transportation services in addition to handling vendor transshipments to Germany and the entire Pacific Region.
The Exchange bakery at South Korea’s Camp Market, 1998
Compared with Camp Market, the new location is estimated to reduce the travel distance to 15 installations by 31%. Reduced travel times are expected to save about $225,000 in transportation costs over five years, in addition to reducing the Exchange’s carbon footprint.
In 2021, the Camp Market bakery—which provides name-brand baked goods to Warfighters and their families—joined the distribution center in relocating to Humphreys, completing the nine-year-long Korea Exchange Transformation. Both facilities followed the November 2017 opening of a 300,000-square-foot Exchange shopping center. About 44,000 are expected to call Humphreys home following the completion of the Yongsan Relocation Plan.
