A real bargain: On the whole, commissaries’ claims of savings hold true - Military Times

A real bargain: On the whole, commissaries’ claims of savings hold true

It’s a 12-mile drive up congested highways from Dale City, Va., to Fort Belvoir, just south of Alexandria, Va. But Navy Yeoman 1st Class Missina Schallus makes the 30-minute trip weekly just to buy her groceries. It’s worth it, she says — and she’s right.

In one typical week recently, she saved $51 compared to one of the many grocery stores closer to her home, in Military Times’ comparison of the same items. Multiplied 52 times, it works out to $2,652 — enough for a family vacation for Schallus and her husband, who are expecting their third child.

In today’s tough economy, everyone is looking for ways to save. And even though military families are better off than most — with service members fully employed, without risk of layoffs or furloughs — they’re no exception. Frugality is the new black; everybody’s trying it.

And there may be no better or easier way to save a bundle than to shop at the commissary.

A typical family of four can save some $3,300, the Defense Commissary Agency claims, using Department of Agriculture data and their own pricing surveys that show an average savings of 30 percent. But is that really true? Can you prove it?

Yes, you can. Military Times put the commissaries to the test, fanning out to seven bases and asking 10 shoppers to share their commissary receipts from a real, live shopping trip. We then took their register tapes and found the same items in the nearest name-brand supermarket outside the base gate. We also added a Wal-Mart Supercenter to the mix.

We compared only identical or nearly identical items, ignoring items we couldn’t match to maintain direct comparisons. The result: Savings ranged up to 38 percent.

Among the civilian retailers, only Wal-Mart came close to the commissary prices. But it was still more expensive by 12 percent.

And it’s not just families who save money. Single soldier 2nd Lt. Shameka Wade saved $15.92 — or 27 percent — on the 17 items she bought at the Fort Meade, Md., commissary, that we were able to compare at the Food Lion about a mile outside the gate. That works out to nearly $64 a month, or a couple of tanks of gas.

Our analysis shows that overall, individual shoppers saved the biggest percentages on produce — up to 73 percent on onions bought at the Los Angeles Air Force Base commissary, compared to the nearby Ralph’s grocery.

Eggs and milk brought in big savings, too — as much as 59 percent at Fort Belvoir on eggs, compared to the nearby Safeway, and 60 percent at San Diego Naval Base, Calif., on a half gallon of 1 percent milk, compared to the nearby Vons.

The biggest savings overall, of 38 percent, was in Los Angeles. Margaret Bunyard, wife of a retired soldier, saved $73.83 on her basket of 39 items we compared. That chunk of change could pay a monthly cell phone bill.

Of 199 items we were able to compare in stores other than Walmart, only six were more costly in a commissary

Of 39 items compared at Wal-Mart, six name-brand items and seven “Great Value” (Wal-Mart’s own brand) items were cheaper than in the commissary.

By law, commissaries cannot sell generic, or store brands. Where Military Times was able to compare some store brands in the local grocers, the data showed that commissary savings generally shrank by 2 percent to 7 percent, depending on the store.

A mandate for savings

Because grocery prices vary by region, commissary savings also vary, DeCA spokesman Kevin Robinson said. But as of October, DeCA is required to maintain 30 percent average savings on commissary purchases compared to off-base stores in the U.S., under a directive signed by former Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David S.C. Chu.

Such a mandate — the first time a savings requirement has been put in writing — “reinforces the benefit,” Robinson said, because vendors who work with DeCA know they must give these discounts compared to prices they give to local stores.

The same directive requires commissaries to do their own pricing surveys each year to evaluate savings. Comparisons consider only identical items by brand and size, and must compare commissary sales prices (including surcharge) with commercial prices (including local sales taxes).

Outside the continental U.S., a sampling of items representing categories sold in commissaries are compared to like items in local stores.

By law, commissaries must sell items at cost; there is no markup other than the 5 percent surcharge customers pay at the register on their entire bill. That money is used to renovate and build commissaries. The commissaries also received $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars in fiscal 2009, an amount that has been relatively stable for the last several years.

Civilian stores, meanwhile, are free to charge whatever they please, both marking up prices as they choose, and lowering them to undercut competitors.

Some shoppers, such as Navy wife Alaina Maier at Dahlgren, say they can’t find everything they want at the commissary, and so go to off-base stores to fill in what’s missing. Maier said she buys about 90 percent of her items at the commissary, and does the rest at a nearby Food Lion.

Which raises another point: Just as some items may not be available at the commissary, many others may not be available at a civilian store. Only one in every three items Maier purchased at the commissary were also available at Food Lion.

“It’s only about a mile to Food Lion, so it’s not that far,” Maier said. “But it’s worth it to shop here at the commissary. You save so much money.”

Staff writers Eric Holmes, Gidget Fuentes and Trista Talton contributed to this report.