Shaw AFB’s ‘Ms. Sue’ Catanch Celebrates 45 Years of Making Connections With Customers

Roszele Catanch, a customer experience associate at the Shaw Air Force Base Exchange, is known for her outgoing personality. But on her first day working for the Exchange, she was nervous.

That didn’t last long.

“I asked myself, ‘Which angle should I take? How should I do this?,” said Catanch, who is better-known as “Ms. Sue.” “And then I started talking with the customers and telling them about the merchandise. One thing I’ve learned during my 45 years with the Exchange: Learn. Your. Merchandise. Learn about the merchandise. You can sell it, you can promote it, and they’ll buy it.”

Did you catch the part about 45 years? Ms. Sue celebrated that landmark anniversary in January. Exchange Director/CEO Tom Shull and Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Marla Randolph recognized her contributions to the Exchange during a ceremony.

Catanch has spent most of her 45 years with the Exchange at Shaw, where she’s been since 1986. But she started at the Seymour Johnson AFB Exchange. After her 1978 graduation from Morris College in Sumter, South Carolina, she married an Airman, who was assigned to Seymour Johnson.

A friend told her about the Exchange, and she decided to give it a try. She joined the Seymour Johnson BX as a temporary worker, and she took the place of a supervisor who was on a medical leave.

“They hired me part time because I did such a good job,” Catanch said. “Once they hired me, I said, ‘I think I’m going to make some money for them!’ This girl said, ‘Make some money?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to get on the intercom, and I’m going to start advertising. I’m going to see if our department can make some money.’”

Roszele “Ms. Sue” Catanch, right, with Shaw AFB Main Store Manager Terri Neiswonger at Catanch’s 45th anniversary celebration in January.

Ever since then, the customer experience associate has been giving customers an experience. At Seymour Johnson, then Tyndall AFB and now at the Shaw BX, she became known for her in-store announcements and service—so much that customers seek her out when they come to the store.

Ms. Sue credits that not just to the outgoing personality that she’s had all her life, but to what she learned in college, which she graduated cum laude within 3½ years.

“I took voice and speech because I wanted to go into radio,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘I can use my advantage with the Exchange. I’m going to get on that intercom and it’ll be like radio.’ So I used that.

“I took that to whatever base I went to,” she added. “I’d get energized with the customer and make money. A manger once came to me and said, ‘You’ve put some good money into the Exchange—people are really buying.’ ”

Along with the collegiate lessons, there were family lessons that have influenced her Exchange career.

“My mother taught me a lot of smartness, and my grandmother taught me how to face the world,” she said. “How to go out there and always be respectful. She taught me that respect would carry me farther than money. At the time, I didn’t understand what she was talking about because I was young, but she kept instilling that until I could see where she was coming from.”

She has also been Shaw’s MILITARY STAR_® card ambassador for the past couple of years. “She’ll get on the intercom, talking to people about the card, and the benefits of having the card,” said Main Store Manager Terri Neiswonger. “If she sees someone with a big basket, she’ll talk them into the Star card.”

Ms. Sue’s husband retired from the Air Force after 22 of service. A son—one of her seven children—served in the Air Force for four years. They settled in the Sumter area near Shaw Air Force Base, and she’s been there ever since.

Asked if any customer memories stand out to her after 45 years, Ms. Sue said they all stand out to her.

“Because they’ll come looking for me,” she said. “They’ll ask me, ‘What are you selling today? What are you promoting today?’ Customers have told me, ‘You really have it going on. We like coming back to you when you’re working.’ I’d say, ‘I like working with you,’ and just take it from there.

Whether she’ll retire or try to make it to her 50^th anniversary is up for discussion.

“I’m asking God about that,” Ms. Sue said. “I’ll see what God tells me.”

This story contains material from Exchange Post archives.