We do go to Wegman's, it's our date place.
~~~ For posters that have never experienced a Wegman's, they actually have a wine and raw bar in the store.
We like it for their selection of unique produce, seafood, bakery and deli, but as much as they have unique items, they are do not carry as wide of variety in other items that HT does.
I am someone that buys mainly only the weekly specials and stock up, so for me I usually save at least 40% every week, and if I use coupons during their triple or double up to $2 I save at least 60%.
I.E. This week it was buy 2 get 3 free Coke 12 packs, so for 5 12 packs it cost me $13 bucks, and than I had 2 $1 dollar coupons if you bought 2 12 packs, which were doubled. I got 5 for 9 bucks!
~~~ That soda will last us about 2-3 weeks.
I also will buy Safeway or Giant gift cards to use to shop, which gives me 4 times the points to save money on gas. I literally go through the line 2x within an hour. 1x to buy the gift cards before I start shopping, and the second to pay for the groceries using the gift cards I just purchased an hour earlier. I can get up to 40 cents off on gas, and when you have a Yukon that holds 30 gallons, it tallies up to a nice savings very quickly.
That is my point of why I think many younger retirees or AD no longer see the commissary as worth it. Many of my friends do the same as me.
The only place that I won't shop at for groceries is our Super Target. It is just too expensive on everything and it would be worth it to drive to Quantico or Belvoir for the savings.
I have to say I just can't see them closing all of the Commissaries, I think the outcry would be too loud.
I remember before we retired from SJAFB, the Commissary on Sunday was a social thing.
Everyone after church headed over to the Commissary, and in every aisle you'd bump into someone. If you weren't in line by 1, you would find yourself in a line wrapped down through the meat dept., or iows the length of the entire store. It was worse if it was payday weekend or the holidays. People would actually get in line, while the other person kept going up and down the aisles to finish shopping.
Look at this past October when the govt shutdown, military members knew it was shutting down and the stores looked like an avg grocery store prior to a major hurricane or snowstorm with shelves being emptied as soon as they knew it was coming.
To me that is not a sign of it not being used as a perk by many military members.
I would wonder if closing the commissary would also eventually lead to the closure of the PX/BX too. Many people will do the whole run of going to the PX/BX on the same day since most are now connected. It most likely would lower their sales too.
I am curious if they would lease the commissaries to outside companies, i.e. Giant, Krogers, etc. It would allow them to get a market hold without the major costs of building and creating name recognition in an area that they may not exist already.
~ Back in the late 90's when we did the BRAC, I recall reading in AF Times the success story of a base that closed. The town embraced it, reached out to developers and made it into a gated community as an Adult Community.
~~~ They got medical companies to buy into the hospital, leasing the offices to private docs.
~~~ The hangars were highlighted as a selling point.
~~~ The Movie Theater was purchased by AMC or Lowes.
~~~ The O and E clubs were purchased by the parent company of something like Olive Garden, and renovated to have 2 separate restaurants in each club. I.E. Olive Garden and Red Lobster in one building...turn Right and you go to Olive Garden, turn left in the foyer and you enter Red Lobster.
So on and so forth.
I Know they also did this at RAF Upper Heyford. We actually met a Brit in line for a ride at Disney, and found out how small the world was because they were now living on the block we did a few yrs. earlier. They said that all of the homes sold out on the 1st day, and within hours.
~~ To them they wanted an American style house even if it meant it had not been renovated for yrs. because it also came with American fridges, stoves, washers/dryers and dishwashers...a luxury to them. The fact that playgrounds were literally out the back door, and it came with a Mall, a gym, restaurants, etc. all in walking distance just made it worth every penny according to them. I recall they said they spent 95K pounds in 94 for the 3 bedroom/1 1/2 ba, 1300 sqft ranch we lived in that was on maybe 1/10th of an acre. That was the equivalent of 150K. A lot of money back at that time.