The government is constantly looking at ways to save money and each year the commissary budget comes into question. How can they cut the $1.4 billion commissary budget? Over the years many ideas have been presented, from privatizing the commissary to creating a private brand or even using variable pricing.
It has mostly just been a lot of talk.
The government has finally decided to do something more progressive and hired an outside firm to study ways to save money. These cost-cutting studies will cost the commissary nearly $4 million.
The Defense Authorization Act gave the DoD the responsibility of determining how to save the government money by cutting the commissary budget. The Department of Defense contracted Boston Consulting Group to conduct 2 studies in order to determine exactly how to cut the Defense Commissary Agency (DECA) budget. These two studies cost nearly $4 million and yes, that came out of the commissary budget.
The first study, which started in January 2015, has already been complete and cost $2.3 million. Its purpose was to determine any cost-cutting possibilities. Another contract, this time for $1.44 million, was also awarded to Boston Consulting Group and is already in progress. The goal of this study is to develop a way to compare civilian grocery prices with commissary prices to determine a baseline savings.
The Defense Commissary Agency says that customers save on average 30 percent compared to civilian grocery stores based on their own research. The government doesn’t want to just take their word for it however. Boston Consulting Group is now creating a methodology to determine price comparisons.
Will all of this research be worth the cost? It’s hard for the average consumer to see the justification in spending nearly $4 million of the commissary budget on researching how to save money.
The saying “you have to spend money to save money” comes to mind, but that’s a lot of money. What will the return on investment be? What will commissary patrons get out of this?
The second study isn’t complete yest, but the results of the first study are in. The Boston Consulting Group recommended ways to save money in the commissary budget by utilizing variable pricing and creating a private label of products. They also recommended consolidating all of the military exchange systems but that idea has already been turned down.
The Defense Authorization Act gave the Department of Defense the ability to test some of these money-saving options out, such as variable pricing. Variable pricing would mean pricing products differently across the country based off the price in the market. Products in the north typically cost more than some in the south. That means families in some parts of the country will be spending more on groceries than others.
Critics of variable pricing are quick to point out that military service members receive the same base pay no matter where they are stationed, with only basic housing allowance adjusting for location.
As the law currently stands, the commissary is only allowed to sell products at cost plus 5 percent surcharge. While Defense Authorization Act gives the commissary the ability to test variable pricing in areas, the law would have to be changed to implement it permanently.
The creation of a commissary private label was recommended as another option. Those opposed to the idea say that that might actually result in an increase in cost. Civilian grocery stores that have their own private label spend a large sum of money marketing their products to consumers. You have to build up a trust. As it stands, military families trust that the commissary offers quality products at cost plus a small surcharge.
What recommendations will the government take into consideration and when might patrons see changes?
That is yet to be determined, as the second study has not been completed yet. As most things with the government, this is a long drawn-out process.
If our elected officials had served in the military and didn’t have their excessive salaries from their government pay, they would understand that the commissaries need to be left as they are.
I would recommend a commercial grocery chain run the commissaries and allow any person that works on the base/post shop at the commissary with military persons on active duty and military retirees be given a variable rate for purchases depending on what the government determines as a fair and equitable percentage reduction from local costs for food and disposable items. No more civil service employees only a local or regional monitor of commissary meeting the needs of the local/regional military users. Release the commissary to serve the local/regional needs of the personnel and their families. Military dependents could still find employment at the commissary facilities with competitive salaries.
As a retired military veteran of over 24 years service, I hope that our government representatives in Washington D.C. have will honor the benefits earned by our military members; one being commissary benefit that has been a military benefit for over 100 years. I am concerned that his may not happen as less and less of U.S. Senators and Representatives have had the honor of serving in the U.S. military. You can not understand something fully unless you have had the experience of being in the military!!!
Why was consolidation of military exchanges turned down,,??? Why not at least have the Exchanges and Commissaries in one building..?? I’ve been to several military bases (all services) where they are together and have found this very convenient…Seems this would save thousands of dollars in logistics as well as utilities…
I have used the commissary many years, and generally it has been worth the long drive, 30 miles to shop
every two weeks.
l. I have never used he deli. The products are too high.
2. I think it tries to stock too many of same items, e.g. different brands.
3. I don’t buy the so-called fancy stuff from overseas, e.g. like sweet treats, they are too high.
4. I believe we could exert more leverage on supplier’s with our volumne of buying, e.g., shop different
suppliers.
5. I find that the milk will spoil in a week even though refrigerated. We shop locally for milk and some
other items because they have consistently lower prices.
2 studies cost 4 million dollars, that is literally insane!!!
Where and how are they using that $
I can get a bunch of us military and retired military wives together and give us that 4 million and we could solve your problem and help all the military families who are struggling everyday to make ends meet!!
I feel like the US government has a tendency to throw money away, good money that could help so many families!!
There is so much push back against evaluating the Commissary and it makes no sense. Growing up military and marrying military I’ve seen them almost all of my life. Two things have been consistent. First, there is no way the Commissary’s claimed 30% savings is based in truth. I buy high quality organic produce from Whole Foods for less sometimes substantially so, than the Commissary charges for non organics that are usually of very low quality. I buy non organics and organics from King Soopers that are always of high quality and always notably cheaper than the Commissary’s prices. The meat department is the only department that is usually cheaper, but even so I regularly get better prices at Kjng Soopers. If you have a Costco membership you can always get better prices on meat there. With everything else the prices are not consistent but the overall savings at the Commissary, before their surcharge, would not exceed 15%, and that’s generous and rare. After the surcharge is added on those savings would never break 10%.
I have, in recent months, seen improvement at the Commissary. For the past few years I just decided that the small savings of the few things that were better prices at the Commissary just weren’t worth an extra trip so I could deal the second across the years and country consistency of the Commussary: shelves that are always empty and employees that are outrageously rude. Since things have progressed from just talking about looking at the Commissary to actually looking at the Commissary customer service has gone from non existent to par for the area, shelves are rarely empty, product quality and selection has improved dramatically. Even the produce has improved; it’s no where near the quality of any other grocery store in the area but it’s also not across the board disgusting anymore.
Instead of pushing back against evaluating an area that very much needs change and improvement we should be welcoming it and working to guide it. This is an opportunity to help ensure that those who live in high cost of living areas (by the way I live in a midline, not low cost of living area) aren’t choosing between cheap but disgusting produce and rude employees or edible and budget busting produce and good customer service from the local economy. It is also an opportunity to push for across the board improvements so that this is a real benefit. As it stands, unless you are in a high cost of living area, the Commissary is never “worth the trip. “
One’s first clue is that the commissary has to pay for the study, hence, it has a cash flow and cash on hand. Then there is the obvious cost of employees, which was not mentioned in the “study”?? Well, perhaps that is because the same entity that forced them to perform a study forced them to hire gs workers. Hmmm.
Lets see here, it cost a total of 4 million to “analyze” the commissary system that is mandated to operate on the same cost plus 5% basis, regardless of location??? Wow. It cannot get any more simple with respect to analysis of a grocery store scenario. Unbelievable! ANY “study” would have merely been a review of historical data associated with all commissaries. What else would one analyze, their exterior design? Four million and they didn’t include employee alternatives? They weren’t given access to “that” data?? Or would that parameter cost another 4 million to review??
Commissaries do not have the buying leverage that Walmart or the like do. I am guessing 4 million doesn’t get you that kind of insight. Since the 4 million didn’t, let me explain free of charge!! Walmart, and the like, can buy nearly any and all items for far less than the commissary can. After that it is 1st grade math to determine the implications when considering “variable pricing”. As far as “own brand” – really? So, they are going to manufacture it? NO, they are going to pay to have it packaged under their store name. Hello??? AGAIN, Walmart, and the like, can do that because they have leverage out the whazoo and bazillion locations.
So, the commissary was forced to waste 4 million.
I can tell you from ,my experience at the commissary in this area that they are using the highest priced stores locally to compare prices. Then telling the patrons of the commissary how much they are saving. That is why you see the military shopping in even the high prices local stores for their groceries rather than the commissary. There was a time when you had great savings when shopping in your commissaries but this is no longer the fact. They carry name brand canned goods and other name brand items. This does not mean that they are better by any stretch of the imagination. I lived in an area that the local stores carried very few name brand items and had excellent groceries not mediocre as is implied and great savings in a local grocery. No discounts on your groceries. Locals thought that there groceries were high but they were far from high. In this area the local prices would scare these people out of their socks. Now this being said I could also drive to an open market and buy bananas ten pounds for a dollar and other veggies for a song cabbage at times was priced 3-5 heads for a dollar celery the same and it was fresh out of the fields. Kept well for at least 3 weeks not like the produce we get locally that you are lucky to keep till your dinner the night your purchase the items. It is time that the commissary really passes the savings on to the consumer and not just shuffle papers to make numbers look good. Somewhere there is something very wrong with the commissary and what is going on in them. Studies will not show anything but what the top wants to make look good. The military are getting less pay than the outside pays so why shouldn’t they get the lowest prices? They have and still do promise the moon and stars but that is not what the military gets. There is no reason to find many on food stamps or what ever the local area wants to call the system. I have seen young clean cut intelligent men with baby items diapers baby food paying with food stamps at a holiday no adult items were included in what he had that day. I wondered what they were going to eat for the holiday or other days if that was all he could buy that day with the food stamp type program or eat for the rest of the month? This is also a disgrace. Throw all the numbers into the pot when you figure out what is going on in the commissaries.
Commissary buyers are not making the best deals with there purchasing power. If the items in the isles are
not lower priced than out side stores/ what are they doing. and then comes 5 more % at check out time.
Some items are good buys, other are are a poor comparison. Buyer have to know what they are doing!!
They should look at the ALDI model. I loved them and they’re super cheap.
ask congress to increase the surecharge to six% and go back to paper bags omit the plastic bags to save our invoerment from non -degradeable bags
decrease the overhead budget by instaling eleltric pannels
It seems that all products have seen a remarkable increase in pricing over the last 5 to 10 years. There used to be considerable savings over shopping off post, now there is minimal if any savings once you add the 5% surcharge to everything. I think more should be done in establishing better pricing from the suppliers of the commissary products. Then if shopping at the commissary would actually save people money the volume of business from returning customers should reduce costs.