One of the biggest and potentially best, perks of military life is the commissary. Land of less costly staples and often unique foreign foods, the commissary can be a pretty great place.
When you are new to military life, the commissary can be a bit intimidating, especially if you are shopping without your service member. It’s a grocery store, but not exactly. There are some written and unwritten rules that run the commissary.
Here are 10 tips to make your commissary shopping experience a pleasant one.
10 Tips for New Commissary Shoppers
1. Always Bring Singles
The very friendly people bagging your groceries work for tips and tips only. Their take-home pay is based on your generosity and goodwill. If you just have a few bags, drop a buck or two in the wooden box or glass jar. If the bagger has packed many bags, takes them to your car and stows them in the trunk, give a bigger tip please!
2. Clip Coupons
The prices at the commissary are already below the out-in-town shops’ prices, but coupons should not be neglected. Grab the flyers at the front of the store and pull out a few before you shop. Or plan in advance with the Sunday coupon inserts or weekly circulars.
Don’t forget to use your Commissary Rewards Card app. You can digitally clip coupons that way or by visiting Coupons.com.
Even if you use coupons occasionally, you can still score big savings on staples like cereal, diapers and snacks.
3. Military Coupons
Throughout all commissaries are special military-only coupons. These deals are often even better than the manufacturer coupons distributed to the general public. Plus, the discount window tends to be longer, giving you more time to stock up.
4. Pay Day
Service members get paid on the same 2 days each month. Like clockwork. If you value your sanity, avoid shopping at your commissary on those days. Go a few days before or a few days after.
The 1st and the 15th are not days you want to “just run in real quick for some milk.”
5. Case Lot Sales
A few times a year, most commissaries will close a section of their parking lots for case lot sales. A case lot sale is the perfect time to stock up on toilet paper, paper towels, canned goods and bulk snack items for hungry kids. Almost everything is even cheaper than normal and there are often coupons that give you an even bigger price cut.
6. Checkout Etiquette
In civilian grocery stores you just find the register with the shortest line and go there. In the commissary there is one giant line that funnels to the registers. It makes sure that each check-out is not overwhelmed with people and that baggers all get equal amounts of work.
On your first trip, don’t be that person who cuts the line. Join the big queue and bring something to entertain the kids (and you) while you wait.
7. Restocking Day
This might vary slightly from base to base. Generally there is 1 day a week that the whole store is restocked. Find out when this day is and shop on that day. By sticking to restocking day for shopping, you will get fresher veggies and produce. You will also get first grab for new items or popular things that go fast at your commissary.
8. Holiday Feasting
If you like a big turkey for your holiday meal, it is better to scope it out early than to wait until the last minute. Since these big ticket items are considerably less than civilian grocery stores, holiday foods tend to go fast. This means that you might not find a turkey the week of Thanksgiving. It’s better to clear some freezer space in late October than to be caught without one later.
9. Item Requests and Suggestions
Food is changing. Americans are eating very different things than they were even 5 years ago. Just look at the explosion of gluten-free and organic products!
If you want to see something on your commissary shelves, ask. Email the manager. Their contact information is always on the receipt and on the commissary specific website.
You can contact the procurement or department manager too. Often, if a regular distributor carries the product you want, it will show up in stores. Then send a thank you note or email.
There are also comment boxes near the management office of every commissary. If someone went above and beyond, or you liked a particular item, write it down and put it in the box. This is the only way that each store knows what is going right and what needs to be corrected.
10. Time to Shop
This varies based on where you are. Many locations, particularly northern Virginia and southern California, have a huge military retiree population with commissary privileges. This group tends to shop in the late mornings on weekdays. If you are OK with moving a little slower and navigating around motorized carts, this might be a good time for you.
Many families with working parents shop on Saturdays or after church on Sundays. The store will be crowded and full of kids. Also, stores don’t restock on weekends, so this is a prime time for something to run out.
The best way to figure this out is to hit your local commissary on a few different days and times. Find out what works best for your shopping style and stick with it.
Always use coupons for extra savings, and ALWAYS TIP THE BAGGERS!
Welcome…and enjoy your military experience.
Patrons should also be advised of flow of traffic (carts) which makes navigating isles much easier & easier to maneuver around patrons that have stopped to get something from the shelves. Many times, in our commissary in Pensacola, the isles are blocked… people pushing carts up wrong side of isles, as well as people leaving carts in center of isle while they get items and people involved in deep conversation, which also blocks isle & causes congestion. Commissary Tip #11 should be “Shopping Cart Etiquette”.
Thank you very much!
DO NOT believe all that crap about the prices. A frugal shopper can match or beat a lot of canned items and pastas on the local market. The vegetables are normally higher as well and the quality not any better. Potatoes at Nellis AFB always have too many bad spots to safely bake without peeling and checking them. There is usually a sale on soft drinks as well and it beats the same old, same old every day price in the commissary. Stick to the meats except for chicken which is always higher than outside sale prices. Sorry, just telling it like it is. Make sure you check your prices as there are more mistakes at the register than you want to believe.
WHY DOES THE COMMISSARY NO LONGER STOCK THE G.I. BRAND OF 100% WHOLE WHEAT BREAD???
I really wish they would pay the baggers a normal wage…working for tips only is soooo arcaic
Many of our on-duty military are very low in grade and must shop at Aldi’s who repeatedly beat prices at our commissaries especially on produce, eggs and staples. Whoever is our distributor charges more the Aldi’s supplier and still makes a profit. Why can’t our supplier do better than Aldi’s. Our contracts should guarantee that prices cannot be more than their prized customers.
Personally, I think if baggers and their tips would be eliminated, or at least reduced to only two dedicated cash registers, more people would shop at the commissary. Any savings that may be found by shopping there will be lost by paying baggers..
Sorry, but it is a tough economy and everyone clips coupons and looks for a penny here and there to save.
Tipping the baggers is ridiculous. There are many military families on WIC, or food stamps. The commissary claims to not charge taxes’; what is the surcharge? By the time you get out of there you are paying as much as anywhere else. Not to mention, the commissary is not always cheaper than Walmart or Albertsons. The biggest turn off for me was when we were on welfare, and I gave the bagger a dollar for putting my groceries in a bag, I would get a dirty look! Get rid of this archaic system. I can my own groceries in a bag.
And you can bag your own. Just let the cashier know. Who will then let the badgers know that you would like to bag your own. It’s not a problem.
Anyone shopping at the commissary should be wary of expiration dates. The commissary I go to sells many products that are almost or already expired. I have also read that commissaries claim they sell their products at cost and that is absolutely NOT TRUE. I buy my paper products at the local supermarket because the commissary sells them at ridiculous prices. Toilet tissue is priced at $12.99 when I buy the exact same package at Shoprite for $8.99. I go twice a month now as opposed to every week in the past. Shopping at the commissary is not worth a weekly trip.