ATTACHMENT 1 - ARNG AND USAR GROCERY REQUEST RFI QUESTIONS (3-15-23).docx

SPE300-23-DLA-GROC

Request for Information (RFI) Meal Support – US Army National Guard/ Army Reserve Grocery Request

Description: US Army National Guard and Army Reserve Grocery Request RFI

Purpose: The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to conduct market research seeking to identify vendors who would be interested in offering on a possible forthcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide Army National Guard (ARNG) and Army Reserve (USAR) units with grocery request fulfillment in support of Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Troop Support’s Subsistence meal support efforts. DLA is contemplating entering into contracts that provide requested food from individual grocery orders to support the Services for lunchtime meals on weekends when military dining facilities are not an option for ARNG/ USAR units. Grocery support will be required for USAR units in the state of Washington and ARNG units in the states of Washington and Illinois. Please see ATTACHMENT 2 – ARNG AND USAR LOCATIONS for a list of ARNG and USAR units and their respective locations. A list of potential products utilized by the ARNG and USAR can be found in ATTACHMENT 3 – ARNG AND USAR GROCERY PRODUCT LIST. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a formal Request for Proposal, or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. Respondents are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in responding to this RFI. All inquiries must be submitted in writing via email to Matthew.Conville@dla.mil and Zoraya.Wilson@dla.mil. The Government will not entertain any further requests to meet individually with a contractor and will not respond to any telephonic inquiries in response to this RFI.

Please see the below requirements for a description of the possible acquisition.

Target Audience: All Interested Businesses

Applicable NAICS code: 445110 for Supermarkets and Other Grocery (except convenience) stores.

Meal Support – US Army National Guard and Army Reserve Grocery Request Requirement:

Description

1. DLA is looking to set up a contract vehicle where US Army Reservists can “shop” for local grocery items on an individual basis with the following requirements:

· The least expensive available substitute item on the catalog will be offered when ordered products are not in stock at time of order fulfillment (example: store brand corn at $0.99 vs name brand at $1.49)

· All produce will be best quality available (do not procure low quality items).

· Semi-perishable items will have at least 30 days minimum of sell by date.

· Perishable items will have at least 3 days minimum of sell-by date.

· Orders will be placed NLT 24 hours prior to pick-up or delivery.

2. Foods will be selected from the vendor’s inventory and picked up by the soldiers at the selected establishment. Vendor may be required to deliver products to customer at specified destination. If delivery is made, all orders will arrive in one truck at one delivery time.

3. To avoid waste, perishable items (meats, fruit, vegetables, eggs, etc.) must be available in 5 -10 pound increments or smaller and semi-perishable items (canned goods, jars, pasta, spices, etc.) must be available to purchase by the individual item. Cases that are in excess of actual quantity needed will not be acceptable.

4. Customers must be notified of any food items that are not in stock or those requiring substitution at least 24 hours prior to the designated time of order pick-up or delivery. Vendors may not place substitutions in the original order. Rather, a new, separate order will be placed by the customer for product substitutions or additional items as required.

Please respond to the following questions:

1. Provide a brief description of your company (name, address, type of business, business size, CAGE Code if applicable, NAICS Code, Point of Contact along with associated contact information).

2. Can you support the above shopping requirements listed under Point 1 of the Grocery Request Description box above? If not, what can you comply with?

3. Does your company have any minimum or maximum dollar value order limitations? Please note – there will be no minimum order requirements on any resultant contract for this acquisition.

4. What is the minimum/maximum number of products that can be ordered for individual grocery orders?

5. If the potential offeror is part of a franchise/grocery chain, can other locations provide backup support in the event that the original offeror is not able to perform?

6. What geographical area does your company serve? Are you able to support multiple locations simultaneously?

7. How quickly could you respond to a grocery order request? Will you be able to provide orders within the requested 24 hours? What is the minimum amount of time required to accommodate grocery orders and/or revisions to existing orders?

8. How is your inventory determined and/or updated?

The bulk of customer orders will occur for weekend service. Can you accommodate weekend orders, if requested?

9. Can unopened products be returned?

10. Are you able to have billing broken down by order (not consolidated) with receipts itemized by SKU, which include item titles that are easily identifiable (example: 3 lbs carrots = $2.99, 5 lbs lettuce = $3.49, 2 lbs tomato = $1.75 NOT 10 lbs produce = $8.23)?

11. Is there are charge for delivery of grocery orders? If so, what is the charge?

Technical Capabilities

Many aspects of any awarded contracts resulting from a restaurant/catering solicitation would be housed and processed within an internal DLA system called Subsistence Total Ordering and Receipt Electronic System (STORES). As a result, any participating awardee must have certain technical capabilities in order receive/process orders, as well to submit catalogs, catalog/price changes, and invoices online so that they process properly through our system. An awardee will need to designate an employee or employees to perform certain tasks in the administrative duties of a contract (i.e., catalog updates, receiving/processing orders, invoicing, etc.).

Please note: Each employee designated to perform tasks within STORES will be required to obtain a Department of Defense (DoD) Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Certificate. Contractors who do not work at a Department of Defense facility may purchase a DoD PKI certificate from one of three External Certificate Authorities (ECAs). The ECAs are vendors who provide digital certificates to DoD’s industry partners who are using their own equipment or working in non-Government facilities. A list of ECAs is available at http://iase.disa.mil/pki/eca/certificate.html. Each Contractor employee accessing STORES will need an Identity Certificate (An Encryption Certificate is not required). Certificate prices range in from $99 - $115 per certificate per year, with volume discounts at some ECAs.

The following questions will help us gather information regarding vendors’ technical capabilities and willingness to adapt to DLA Troop Support requirements:

12. Is your company capable of receiving and/or processing customer orders through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and invoicing for payments in Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF)? If not, would you be willing to become EDI capable?

If not, what ordering/payment process will you be able to accommodate that will provide a proper audit trail for the Army?

13. How do you currently receive/process online orders?

14. Catalog items would be listed on a virtual catalog within DLA’s STORES system. As a result, a designated employee(s) from your company would be required to ensure that inventoried/catalog items and prices for those items are communicated electronically to DLA each week by a specified day/time. This includes the creation of a baseline catalog consisting of items similar to that shown in ATTACHMENT 3 – ARNG AND USAR GROCERY PRODUCT LIST. Personnel at your company would be required to work with DLA personnel to create and maintain the catalog, to include the submission of specification sheets, labels, nutritional facts, and pricing so that DLA can ensure the correct products have been established for the baseline catalog. Please note that this requires a great deal of time and effort, and the need for this person(s) to be readily available in the event that DLA requires assistance/information. Would your company be able to do this? If not, what can you do in place of this?

15. Catalog updates and prices are required to be submitted mid-week every week, and would be processed through the STORES system on Sunday night and take effect the next morning (Monday). The prices for all catalog items would then be held for each item until the next catalog/price update the following week. Would your company accept catalog and price changes to coincide with DLA’s STORES system requirements? If not, do you have any suggestions on how the catalog/pricing adjustments could work for both parties?

16. There is a New Item Request Form (NIRF) that is utilized as part of a process to add new items onto existing catalogs at DLA Troop Support. Any time your company would like to add a new item to the catalog, a designated employee would need to be responsible for completing this task until the product has been approved by the DLA Troop Support Contracting Officer before it can be added to the catalog via the aforementioned catalog update process. Would your company agree to assign personnel responsible for the task of submitting item additions to the catalog? If not, do you have a suggestion for how to implement additions to the catalog?

17. Customer orders may need to be placed at a specified time and picked up a by customers later. Orders would need to be processed through DLA’s STORES system and then be received by personnel at your company and fulfilled for customer pickup at a designated time. Do you foresee any problems with having personnel available to perform these tasks? How long does your company need between the time of order and the time they are allowed to be picked up by customers?

18. The price paid by the customer for all items on the catalog will reflect the price shown on the catalog on the date the order was placed. Do you agree with this requirement?

19. Do you foresee any potential issues with the short order reception/fulfillment window, such as requiring product substitution or not having product in stock (due to last minute menu changes or running out of a given product)?

20. What is the length of time that your company fulfills orders before an order is fulfilled for order pick-up or delivery? How long in advance would you be able to notify customers that certain products were out of stock and that they should order a substitute?

21. DLA normally does not allow for the replacement of Not-in-Stock products with substitutions/product replacements on the same order. Vendors must notify the customers which items were not in stock so that the customer may place a second order for suitable substitute products that are available. In this way, DLA can track vendor performance. What is your policy on providing substitute items? Would you accept DLA’s policy for purchasing substitute items? If not, what do you suggest as a potential policy?

22. How would you keep track of orders placed against a contract if you were to win an award and have orders placed against a resultant contract? Will you designate employees to work within the DLA system to ensure that orders are invoiced properly to ensure payment for products provided to the customers? If not, what can you do?

23. The STORES system typically has some downtime one per month on Sundays due to technical patches. Would this be an impediment to your company?

24. If or when a solicitation is issued for support of providing meals for the ARNG and USAR, does your firm intend to participate in the bidding process?

Responses:

If you are interested in offering on such an opportunity, please provide an emailed response by 5:00 PM EST on 29 March 2023 to Matthew Conville (Matthew.Conville@dla.mil) and Zoraya Wilson (Zoraya.Wilson@dla.mil).

Please have the subject of the email response read “US Army National Guard and Army Reserve Grocery Request RFI”.

Proprietary information or trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials. All information received that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. All government reviewing RFI responses will have signed non-disclosure agreements and understand their responsibility for proper use and protecting from unauthorized disclosure of proprietary information as described in 41 U.S.C. § 423. The Government shall not be held liable for any damages incurred if proprietary information is not properly identified.