Posted on 04/27/2014 6:49:36 PM PDT by SandRat
The produce almost always looked like warehouse leftovers. I told my husband for years that I thought the buyers were getting kickbacks for buying premium goods but getting the old stuff and seconds. The MacDill AFB store was always so busy there is no way that produce would be spoiled from sitting out too long. You could see them taking poor quality produce right out of the box.
Up until the a couple of years ago, I continued to purchase meat there because it was good quality at a good price. That changed too and the quality took a big turn for the worst within the last 5-0 years, while the prices continued to climb. I get better quality meat at Sam's Club and do most of my other shopping at Aldi. I have found that the Aldi brand groceries that I purchase are good or better than name brands most of the time.
The base exchange was rarely a good place to shop to save money.
No doubt in my mind that the commissary is rife with fraud and employees are less likely to be held accountable.
Ever hear the old Allman Brothers song, ‘Whipping Post’? Might be time to make it the official anthem for the armed services.
By design.
They want the patriots out of the military....and introduce a draft to turn it into the largest social program there is.
Let them eat peas.
My mistake and it was a big one, came from skimming the article instead of carefully reading it. Thanks for the correction.
They always go after the individual low ranking military member or after the veteran or the retiree.
And they pay these kids so little already that they are on food stamps. Now, even their food stamps won’t go as far at a military commissary of all place.
Better to have ObamaPhones at 2 billion a year than to take care of our troops.
No problem. My wife used to work for DeCA when we were stationed in Germany. We’re familiar with Beale. For what it’s worth, I considered him a good guy. He was always fighting to keep the Commissary system open, back when Clinton’s Admin wanted to close them completely. He did what he could.
And any GI’s wife can tell you, the savings you get at the commissary really depends on the item you buy and when/if they have a sale. 30% was always propaganda, but if you were smart and followed the sales, you could almost get there.
We now live 30+ miles from the nearest commissary, with 3 Super Walmarts closer to us, so we rarely go to the commissary these days.
And don’t forget the 5 percent. If you were overseas, do you remember the AFN commercials for the 5%, with the singing cashiers?
I hear you...
Many people, including service personnel and retirees don’t realize there’s a “service charge” they pay to use the commissary...it’s right on the receipt.
For the military, the old adage “if they give it to you, they can take it away” is really ominous....
We were stationed at the Army War College when Clinton got elected and lo and behold, the only chicken products you could buy at the post exchange? You got it...Tyson....heh.
LOL -No singing baggers
Har! That’s right. I did a google search and found a bunch of AFN/AFRTS commercials from the 80s and 90s. A trip down memory lane!
I’m a 4 year vet, being single at the time, about the only thing I bought at the commissary was cartons of cigs and occaisonally civilian clothes. Cigarettes were way cheaper.
And why do you suppose those chains had "coupon wars"?
It couldn't have possibly been to undercut the commissary in order to siphon off shoppers now, could it?
In our area, the nearest grocery store is a 30 minute drive from main base...walmart is another 20 minutes or so beyond that and with gas over $4 a gallon, the impact on the service members is going to be significant...
Albertson's has some of the highest prices I've ever seen on the same products carried by the commissary.
Thanks, but I'll work to keep the benefit, even with the oh so egregious 5% surcharge.
“Der Fuehrer’s Cloward - Piven’s effects continue on their path of destruction...”
This is just the commissary. If you add the true cost of running this for CONUS bases, I’m sure you’ll find that they are expensive white elephants.
There is no good reason for the military not to mingle with the masses as much as reasonably possible, and this one more opportunity to do so.
A military that lives around and amongst the citizenry is less likely to turn on them. That used to be an absurd thought, but it is absurd no longer.
If someone wants to run a grocery store and pay ALL the costs required to do so on base, let ‘em. Otherwise - this is absolutely no hardship for the vast majority of military members - and I used to be one.
The article said the savings are dependent on where you live. Here in Alaska, the 30% savings is no BS. I am consistently amazed comparing prices when I go to the local grocery stores. The savings are less in produce, bakery and dairy, but everything else at the commissary is far cheaper. Even with it being 45 miles away we save with a monthly load up, and it would hurt our budget badly if the commissary shut down.
The exchange now, that’s a worthless store. No point in going there at all.
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