This is the sort of thing that might induce a mutiny
Commissaries aren’t troops sole source of food. They’ll just go off-base and slum it with their fellow Americans or have to acknowledge their host cultures overseas.
Not getting paid is a much more serious issue.
Commissary groceries are subsidized, it’s going to have a pretty big impact. Not only will they have to go off-base, it’ll be a lot more expensive.
Coupled with the not getting paid part…lmao
As a single person, almost never used the commissary for myself. Almost only to get milk and formula for civilian friends. But my married friends used it exclusively.
Grunts and young officers are also notoriously bad with money, which is why every base has two Challenger and ten truck dealers outside it.
They have a reputation for being super cheap - at some point in the distant past I think they were, but when I was active duty the prices were nothing special. The only time I did any shopping on base was when I was too lazy to make the trip off base to the local Walmart. The on base stuff are all basically convenience stores, and as convenience stores go the prices are pretty good, but if money’s pretty tight (which is 100% of the junior enlisted) you shouldn’t be shopping there anyway.
Not sure what your area was or what, but it’s definitely way cheaper. I still have the ability to go and make a 45-minute monthly trek to do so. Meat alone is, on average, 50% cheaper than Walmart and about 30-40% cheaper than the cheapest place I have in town
There are a few exceptions like certain canned veggies/beans if you can buy in bulk at Sam’s Club or Costco can be a bit more expensive at the Commissary on a per ounce basis and name brand frozen/pantry “convenience” foods tend to have little savings
But by and large it’s dirt cheap compared to off-base
Definitely not where I was stationed… which was disappointing, as that was one of the perks of enlisting folks would often tout… and I was obviously a gullible little dipshit then, seeing as I enlisted.
Yeah, they’ll have to slum it like the people whose communities they occupy instead of getting their preferred pricing at the government-run markets while complaining about socialism and entitled civilians.
This will be extremely difficult on troops depending on the base. If you live on base and that base is remote then gas is going to add a bunch to cost. Then you also have to factor in refrigerated/frozen items then it becomes a large hurdle.
