I find this to more than likely to be TOTAL BS !!!
I will respectfully wait for others who are ACTUALLY IN THE KNOW.
I will take this time to again say Thank You to All of Our Service Members and Families for doing what they do.🫡🙏🇺🇸
Military Families have access to the PX, BX or whatever?X they are called these days.
Private E-1 pay with a family is tough. Not everyone joins the military as a young, single person. The PX/BX isn’t some wholesale discount outlet. In fact, I find better deals and lower prices outside of the Army/Airforce Exchange Service. In fact, the commissary on post can be difficult to save money in versus, say, Walmart.
I recently retired as an Army CW4, but I entered as a Private First-Class, E-3, as a single man, married, and became a father on that pay and with a promotion to Specialist, E-4. It was possible in 2002-2005, but we were cutting costs everywhere. We qualified for WIC with our firstborn, but I was too proud to sign up for assistance. It would have helped, but I didn’t truly need it for survival.
One would really have to look at the specifics of everyone’s situation. Things are so expensive these days (thanks Biden).
We can thank them by bringing back all of those jobs we offshored so they can get high paying jobs, even if it means we have to pay a little more to do it. Is that too much of a sacrifice to make for those who did so much for us?
Having shopped a good bit at commissaries over the years, I’ll just say in the past five years....there’s a fair amount of inflation. You probably still save 5-to-7 percent over a regular grocery stores. If you use coupons and shop heavily on discounted items....you might save 15-percent over a normal grocery.
How in ‘Ell are frequent moves making food more expensive? What a blithering idiot.
Military Families have access to the PX, BX or whatever?X they are called these days.
The place that sells food and resembles a grocery store is the Commissary store. Different services use NEX, PX or BX to describe Navy Exchange, Post Exchange, or Base Exchange.
An Exchange is a non-appropriated activity. It is not funded by Taxpayer dollars. Like WalMart, it supports itself by marking up the cost of products to pay for all operating expenses and salaries. Employees work for the Exchange system or the local base and are not Civil Service employees of the Federal government. Profits go to the military recreation fund.
A Commissary is an appropriated fund activity. All operating expenses are paid using Taxpayer dollars. Employees work for the Civil Service of the Federal government. The shelf price of items is the cost price to the Commissary. There is no markup. There is no tax added. There is a 5% surcharge to cover spoilage and damaged goods.
Eligible service members, for example shift workers, may draw commuted rations (COMRATS). They may pay to eat at the chow hall (Mess Hall, Dining Facility, Subsistence Building). They pay for the food only. If they ate all meals at the chow hall, they should pay exactly what they were given for COMRATS. It covers the cost of the food and would not fully pay for eating at an Exchange facility or restaurant.
I do not see WalMart being competitive with the Commissary store.