Are you on the lookout for the orange "Value" signs in your commissary? Officials have selected another 99 items to put under that banner, bringing extra savings.
The orange signs point out items that include several cheeses, condiments, canned and powdered milk, canned soup, dry pasta, honey, rice, laundry bleach and paper towels.
Defense Commissary Agency officials choose items that are competitively priced — equal to or below the price of store brands or private label brands of similar items in commercial supermarkets.
These items offer an average savings of about 42 percent when compared to national brands in commercial retail stores, and 25 percent when compared to store brands and private label items in commercial retail stores, according to commissary officials.
These additions bring the number of value brand items to nearly 400 — including frozen food; pet food; health and beauty items; cereals; soft drinks; coffee; canned fruit, soup and fish; and disposable storage bags.
The Defense Commissary Agency re-energized its value brand program last November because officials felt their previous value brand program wasn't always obvious to shoppers. That was highlighted last year in congressional testimony when a senior defense official and some senior enlisted advisers talked about the need for generics or store brands in commissaries to provide more savings for customers.
By law, DeCA can't create its own store brand like the military exchanges' "Exchange Select" brand. But commissaries have long carried other options as part of programs such as "Best Value Item" and even a "Commissary Value Brand" program.
"We've carried most of these items for years, but they were sort of hidden," said Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Stuart M. Allison, senior enlisted adviser to the DeCA director, in a statement detailing the additional value brand items. "Unless you knew to look for them, you weren't truly aware they existed. Now we're giving the customer a highly visible option to compare and add more savings to their shopping experience."
Those orange signs should be a reminder to compare prices. Specials and promotions will continue in commissaries and in commercial retail stores, so keep comparing unit prices — price per ounce of cereal, price per ounce of canned milk, price per diaper, etc.
Pacific commissaries update
A tentative agreement has been reached between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, but DeCA officials say it will likely take a few months for Pacific store shelves to return to normal.
Indications are that the backlog at the ports could take as long as three to four months to clear; it will also take time for DeCA to stabilize stock levels at stores in South Korea, mainland Japan, Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii.
In the meantime, officials will continue to airlift critical products like produce, milk, cheese, yogurt and lunch meat to Pacific stores, gradually decreasing the flights as the backlog is cleared, officials said.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
