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I would also suggest that if military people want to avoid this idea, than it is incumbent on them to find other savings in the DoD that would equal or exceed the savings from this plan.
I personally believe everyone is going to have pay part of the price in order to deal with this problem. The commissary reportedly costs taxpayers $1.4 billion a year. I'm not saying it should be eliminated without doing anything in return for servicemen and women. However, I don't see the rationalization for maintaining the commissary when a military base is adjacent to a city or town with Walmart and other grocery store chains. If the prices at these stores exceed what the soldier or sailor is paying at the commissary than I think it would make more sense to simply give them a cash stipend (yearly, or monthly) that approximates this difference.
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I would also suggest that if military people want to avoid this idea, than it is incumbent on them to find other savings in the DoD that would equal or exceed the savings from this plan.
If you really believe that, once the commissary system is cut, they would both give the cash difference up and KEEP it up long-term, I have a bridge to sell you. "Promises" such as salary parity, health care, one e-mail for life, "go to Korea and you'll get base [x] next" are routinely broken. Once the commissary system was gone, the service members would be told, "oh, budget pressure, we won't raise the grocery allowance this year," and over time it would all but disappear.
I suggest one or two weapons systems myself. The costs are public. For 2014 alone, according to:
There are 14 weapons systems that each cost over 1.4 billion: F-35, C-130J, V-22, KC-46A, EA-18G, P-8A, BMD, Trident II, CVN-21, DDG-51, LCS, SSN-771, CVN-ROCH, EELV. Kill a carrier. Kill the Osprey. Kill the Joint Strike Fighter. Kill a few of the minor weapons systems that add up to 500 or 600 million. Stagger along for a few years without that replacement, we'll be fine.
So all of those weapons systems, each of which serves one specific purpose, those should take priority over the health and welfare of a massive number of families? That thought process is naive, at best.
I really don't have time to read through it. My "DoD seeks plan to shut all U.S. commissaries", time is just pretty much exhausted. I collected all my facts earlier. I would like to see the commissaries stay, perhaps where most needed, If it really would help the vast majorities of military, but I pass two COSTCO's, one SAM's and at least five Walmart's on the way to my nearest commissary.
Maybe I should add a POLL just to see the results...
Quite frankly I have always shopped exclusively at the commissary until just recently when we moved to WA. We live about 40 minutes away from base and to drive to base (in ridiculous traffic) just to shop at the commissary would waste more in gas than I would save. I found Winco and it's much cheaper than the commissary in many areas except for meat prices. The commissary is consistently cheaper for meat. I meal plan, only buy what is cheapest and do not buy processed foods if I can help it so that contributes to my food budget being pretty low for a family of four. I think many stateside base commissaries could be closed and most people would just shop off base and not notice much of a difference, IF they learned how to actually shop the sales and meal plan.
I think remote bases in CONUS and bases OCONUS should stay open since in many cases there just isn't anything comparable. One thing I've noticed while reading comments on articles about this and it always strikes me as interesting when retirees talk about driving hours to go shop at a commissary to stock up. Are they really saving money by doing this or is it just the belief that it's cheaper. I mean if you are driving hours and spending money on gas just to save money on food it seems a bit robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Are there any retirees that do this here? Do you actually save a significant amount of money by doing this? I'm just curious.
My question is why do service members need a commissary when they serve in the 50 states? I understand why it is necessary abroad, but virtually every place with a military base has shopping available.
I think it would make more sense for the government to give soldiers and sailors a cash stipend that would reflect the difference between grocery store and commissary prices.
Operating the commissary has to be pretty expensive and it does not directly add to military readiness.
The prices at Costco are usually better anyway, with higher quality. No loss here. Not impressed with the PX at Nellis.
Costco is everywhere and all military families have the option between the two, correct? Tell that to some family stationed at some base in the middle of Nowhere, USA. They exist and Costco doesn't service them. What are those folks to do, go to 7-11?
UAW retirees will continue receiving their inflated pension checks but the military gets the shaft once again.
They will need to institute the draft at this rate as they are removing any incentives to join up.
Originally Posted by jasper12 The prices at Costco are usually better anyway, with higher quality. No loss here. Not impressed with the PX at Nellis.
Costcos don't exist everywhere, nor do Sam's Clubs or even Wal-Marts (yet).
But the problem with the first two is that they are membership clubs, which can't be required of military personnel, unless the military pays for the membership.
It's not at all relevant if retired or other persons live off base are closer to off-base stores...most cases, they obviously will be. The commissaries will be closer to people on base.
And that is where the real question lies. It will be a considerable change of military concept to decide that military bases/posts will no longer have all the facilities sufficient for the personnel assigned there. Up until now--stretching back more than one hundred years at least--the concept has always been that the post would be capable of fully independent operation from any civilian facilities that might or might not be built nearby.
The civilian world is wild and wooly in a lot of areas; not all civilian faculties are suitable. No, we're probably not talking about major franchises like Wal-Mart...but there isn't a guarantee of a nearby Wal-Mart.
So to say the military is going to depend on civilian facilities for the support of base personnel and their dependents is a major change of a very basic concept.
Will the cost savings be passed on to the military member, active or retired?
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