Show Us Your Grocery Receipts, Part Thirteen: Military Base Commissary
This week’s receipt is from America’s only federally-funded grocery store chain.
I don’t know much about military base life, so I was super-excited to get a grocery receipt from a Billfolder who regularly shops at a military base commissary.
Her receipt and summary are as follows—and make sure you watch the video at the end.
I have a receipt from America’s only federally-funded grocery store chain. My husband is active duty military stationed in California, and this is the receipt from the base commissary. This grocery run will cover us for about two weeks for two people. The big ticket items for us on this trip were dog food ($24.22 for 30 lbs), Morningstar “sausage” ($6.42) and frozen shrimp ($6.99).
I imagine that most of the Billfold readers are unfamiliar with military life, so here are some facts about military commissaries:
- Commissaries are required to sell food at cost and tax-free. There is a 5% surcharge that pays for commissary maintenance. The “at-cost” policy may be changing soon, though.
- Our commissary has baggers that are not employees — there are signs explicitly stating the baggers work for tips only. (We tipped our bagger $5 this trip.)
- Commissaries have pretty much everything you’d find at a regular grocery store, except for alcohol. This one even has Dave’s Killer Bread ($4.35).
- The parking lot has VIP parking spaces for families of service members killed in combat.
- Case lot sales are a big deal.
