Posted on Nov 21, 2013
The Pentagon is looking at closing the commissaries. How will this affect you and your family?
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Posted 11 y ago
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I will likely get flak for this, put here are my two cents. One of the great benefits I get attending graduate school through the Army is occasional candid access to senior defense leaders. Last week at a luncheon with GEN Odierno, he brought up the fact that personnel costs, currently at 45% our the Army's budget, will rise to 80% by 2025 if the current trend increases and we make no changes. This is due to multiple reasons probably better suited for another discussion, but what the CSA contended, and I agree with, is that we are not taking care of our Soldiers if we cannot train and equip them, which you can't do with 20% of your budget. The take away from that is that we have to recognize there needs to be some change to our personnel system and the associated costs. I think we can all recognize that. What ADM Harvey proposed in a great article is that DoD needs to ask where military families can take cuts, not impose blanket solutions based on what we think is best for our people.
That brings me to the topic of the commissaries. This cannot be a blanket solution (see Ft. Irwin, OCONUS locations, etc), but the purpose of the commissary, as originally designed, was to provide for remote western based that were on the frontier. For 90% of our CONUS bases, that is not the case. Couple that with the fact that WalMart in 2009, when DoD investigated this idea, offered that they would sell to military families at cost, meaning what you pay at the commissary (and they were not the only business to do so), and it would appear you have an 80% solution to save DoD money. However, the blow back from the military community was so great, the commissary became untouchable (there is an interesting article in the Washington Post on this topic from earlier this year). The idea died.
My central point here is that things have changed and we, as service members, have to challenge some deeply held beliefs on what we think is important to us while we serve and afterwards. There is going to be some tradeoffs here, and we have to find solutions to recruit and retain the best while recognizing that some of the things we have always counted on need to get cut away.
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LtCol Dann Chesnut
We need to get our heads out of our 3rd point of contact on this one. We need to move commissaries out of the benefit area and put them into the service areas. They need to be run as a business where management considers income vs cost, and make adjustments. They don't need to make a profit, but they do need to break even. This includes the cost of personnel, facilities, and product.
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LtCol Dann Chesnut
Good MOAA article from CPT(P) from Ft. Knox; but not quite on point to this discussion. I'm retired from the military now. If the commissary system goes over to operating like a business looking at income vs expenses, I offer my services to run it! I'll make sure that it will be a going concern.
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GySgt William Hardy
If we were just talking stateside posts, I would be a simple matter of adapting to using off-post/base facilities like Walmart, A&P, etc. But the problem is our overseas bases. If the military is going to continue to operate overseas and families are permitted to travel with the service member, then a commissary is necessary to maintain our American style shopping habits. Unless the military contracts with a host nation to provide food services, it would indeed distract from the tour of duty. I can look back and just imagine how awful it would have been to have to rely totally on the Greek economy as our food source. The quality of meats, fish, etc., would have been terrible. I can remember the vegetables had to be treated before we used them and I remember a number of small snails and other critters that floated in the water after soaking. Germany would not have been as bad, but still, as a person who likes steak, I would hate to pay German prices for the beef, while at the same time I would have a hard time keeping down my weight eating their bread...boy was it good. I can remember when it was hard to get fresh milk.
Yes, a compromise must be reached on this point as far as overseas tours are concerned. Something as simple as a dozen fresh eggs can be a nightmare in some parts of Europe and Asia. Don't forget about "mad cow" for those in Britain. How is this going to affect AAFES?
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GySgt William Hardy
I see most of the negative comments from people who do not like change or have a hate for Walmart. As you pointed out, the purpose of commissaries is dated to a hundred plus years ago and things have changed. It is entirely possible for real world civilian corporations to operate on military post CONUS and overseas. I do not see this problem as a loss of a benefit, only as a change in management. In the stateside bases that are not located adjacent to towns, companies like Walmart can operate on base/post and hire dependents to work in the store. With slight adjustments, they would operate just like the commissary, bit with a minimum of cost to the government.
Consider this...if a store like Walmart were to take over, might it be possible for certain benefits to be extended to those of us who do not live next to a military facility to get special discounts with our retired ID cards? Just something to consider.
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If the commissary on Fort Irwin were to close it would cause a problem for those stationed there considering it is 30 plus miles one way to get to the closest surround city. During the furlough the commissary remained open due to this fact. If they decide to close stateside commissaries they need to take into the location of installations in regards to relation to the closest civilian grocery store, if they were to close a commissary on a post such as Fort Irwin I could see it becoming detrimental to the morale of soldiers and their families.
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SFC (Join to see)
It's the same here at Fort Hunter Liggett. The nearest civilian store is over 20 miles away. We are in a fight right now to just have the small PX open on the weekends for families that live on post.
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GySgt William Hardy
I am sure that arrangements could be made with a company to operate a store in place of the commissary or off post. I really don't think remoteness would be that difficult to overcome. I'll bet Walmart would be glad to come in, open a store, and hire dependents to work there.
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