Commissary users

[PrincessSuzanne]

I have found a website where you can pull up the sales at your Commissary, since they don't have ads.

It is Commissaries.com, you have to put in your sponsors last name, SSN, and birthday and it will give you a list of the items on sale by Base name.

It is useful for finding out when they are having caselot sales as well as other news.

Suzanne

 

[tomthebarncat]

Is it a secure website? I dont like to put hubby ssn in unsecure sites. Also does it cover overseas? specifically Ramstein Air Base in Germany? TIA!

 

[VirataMama4]

You can also use militaryshoppers.com. No personal info needed, just zipcode. This is the website that is listed at the bottom of the sale ads we get with our base newspaper! There is also a section to print coupons.

 

[LovableGluttons]

Is it just me or the case lot sales nothing like they used to be?

I remember getting frozen Green Giant vegetable for a nickel a bag at a case lot sales years ago.

Now that was savings!

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Yes, it is a secure website, not sure if they have overseas commissaries or not, you can check that out without having to put in info. The only reason you have to put in the personal info is to access the actual sales prices.

I haven't checked out militaryshoppers.com, but have friended them on facebook. I don't have a printer at home, so I can't print coupons from their site, I didn't even see any for things we use.

Since DH has been back in, we haven't checked out the case lot sales, but they used to be really good. I think we usually shop on the opposite weekend from those sales.

 

[Local_Girl]

Thanks for the info!

Yeah, the case lot sales aren't great now...we just went to the most recent one a few weeks ago and I think we walked out of the case lot area with only a couple of things, because the sales weren't terrific. There were some coupons that helped, but I can get better prices off base at regular store sales.

 

[JB2K]

Just to clarify -- Commissaries.com is the official DoD website of DeCA, meaning the website is safe to use...

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Thanks for the info!

Yeah, the case lot sales aren't great now...we just went to the most recent one a few weeks ago and I think we walked out of the case lot area with only a couple of things, because the sales weren't terrific. There were some coupons that helped, but I can get better prices off base at regular store sales.

I will never shop at the regular stores again, they can never beat the Commissary prices, and I don't hav etime to go all over town chasing sales, even if they did.

We had to run in to Walmart for something the other day, they had something I wanted that the Commissary didn't have and I was shocked at the prices of the groceries, I get some thing at half the price at the Commissary. Even DH was shaking his head.

Just to clarify -- Commissaries.com is the official DoD website of DeCA, meaning the website is safe to use...

Thank you, I meant to go back and add that to my original post.

 

[Local_Girl]

Well, I do a mix of shopping, between the commissary and local grocery stores. When we were active duty and living on or near base, we shopped there almost exclusively. Now that DH is retired, we live about an hour away and only get to the commissary once, maybe twice a month. There are certain things we like to get there (meat, spices especially) because of prices and quality. I don't shop at Wal-Mart for groceries at all (they're really expensive here too), and rarely go in there otherwise. Our local stores double coupons, and that combined with sales make for some good deals.

 

[cm8]

I have found a website where you can pull up the sales at your Commissary, since they don't have ads.

It is Commissaries.com, you have to put in your sponsors last name, SSN, and birthday and it will give you a list of the items on sale by Base name.

It is useful for finding out when they are having caselot sales as well as other news.

Suzanne

TY!

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Well, I do a mix of shopping, between the commissary and local grocery stores. When we were active duty and living on or near base, we shopped there almost exclusively. Now that DH is retired, we live about an hour away and only get to the commissary once, maybe twice a month. There are certain things we like to get there (meat, spices especially) because of prices and quality. I don't shop at Wal-Mart for groceries at all (they're really expensive here too), and rarely go in there otherwise. Our local stores double coupons, and that combined with sales make for some good deals.

Well, I can understand if you live that far away. DH is only Active Reserve, but we are really close to base, so we go about twice a month, that is how I normally grocery shop anyway.

TY!

You're welcome.

 

[jsmith]

I work on an installation-just a few blocks from the Commissary and there are still somethings i buy on the economy. The Quality of produce is simply better especially if you are hitting farmers markets. I do the majority of my shopping on installation but our grocers here are highly motivated to match or come close to Commissary pricing ( this is a very heavilly military area and there are 4 large commissaries in our area and another with in an hour an a half drive. the is no tax on food in El Paso county-except for Soda and Candy which are require by state law so we get a pretty good deal on most things-some how ever are much much better and cheaper-meat for example.

 

[surfergirl602]

thanks for this posting.... good to see the militaryshoppers site, but there weren't any coupons that I could use. We don't have any grocery stores here, so its hard to find coupons to use to save a substantial amount of $$$.

 

[tomthebarncat]

They take internet coupons that you print from home, I went today for groceries. I spent $100, and after saving 29.24 using mostly printed coupons, and a few from the tear pad in the store, my bill was 64 bucks. The bag boy asked me how I did it, and I told him the website that I use. I use coupons all the time, and will grab a few from the tear pads, if it is a product that I buy on a regular basis.

 

[esk]

Here is my favorite case lot sale story:

Ramstein (Vogelwheh) commissary parking lot, 2002 -- parking lot is insane, it's Saturday of the case lot sale. DH and I only shop on weekends, so we were going anyway.

People are coming out with trailers of stuff. DH sees one of his troops pushing a push car with like 15 huge bags of dog food. "Hey, how are you?" DH says. NCO doesn't stop, says "Hey, gotta go, gotta go get some more, it's $4 a bag".

DH says, "oh, your dog eats Purina?" and NCO calls back over his shoulder "He does now!"

Those were the days.....

 

[PigletsPal2]

We're not eligible to use commissaries any more as we're retired civilian State Dept. officers, but when we could use them overseas, we LOVED them! We lived overseas for 17 years, and when I went into a "real" grocery store here in Florida, I had an anxiety attack - too many choices! Who can decide between 257 different kinds of cereal? DH or DDs do the grocery shopping now!

Queen Colleen

 

[edk35]

We too shop at the commissary. I don't enjoy it though. WE are just few. min. from the base too. It just seems to take ME so much longer in the commissary than if I went to a regular store. HOWEVER the stores out in town can 't even come close to the commissary's prices. I of course suck it up and muddle through the shopping experience on base. Even though we are close to the commissary, I don't find that I go there if a I need just a few things inbetween my shopping trips. I always seem to run to one of the local stores.

 

[coastiewifern]

What is the rate for tipping a bag person? It has been a long time since I have shopped there.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I have a commissary close by, but rarely shop there. Even though it was built only a few years ago and is bigger than the old commissary, the selection is too limited. While I can save money on a few items, many things are as cheap or cheaper at other local grocery stores or Costco. They do have two self checkout lines, which is a plus.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

What is the rate for tipping a bag person? It has been a long time since I have shopped there.

I usually tip $5. Most of the time we only have 1 person, on Saturday, we had 2 baggers and each got $5. I have seen people hand them only a $1 or $2, and even saw one couple that said they would bag and carry out their own groceries.

This is one big reason we go to the Commissary, I like having someone else bag my groceries and take them out for me. This time, I even remembered to bring my re-usable bags, that made it easier for DH to carry them in the house.