Pathway to savings: Log on to commissaries.com to maximize your benefit

FORT LEE, Va. – Like most service members, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Tomeka N. O’Neal doesn’t like to waste time. So when it comes to visiting the commissary, she’s online planning her shopping trip before she goes to the store.

“Logging onto commissaries.com and checking out the latest promotions, downloading digital coupons and finding out when your store will have a sidewalk sale are all things you can do to prepare for your shopping experience,” said O’Neal, the Defense Commissary Agency’s senior enlisted advisor to the agency director. “A few minutes online before you go will save you plenty of dollars in the commissary.”

Here’s how commissaries.com can get you more from your benefit:

GET SAVINGS

• Register your Commissary Rewards Card to open the door to thousands of digital coupons redeemable at any commissary.
• Find coupons and coupon links for hundreds of products.
• Browse the biweekly featured items and sales flyer. Authorized shoppers can login to see the biweekly featured items and sales flyer with discounted products; every two weeks it reflects products as they go on sale. The flyer also contains three dietitian-approved recipes – one for a featured produce item, meat and then a “Thinking Outside the Box” meal solution, where many of the recipe items are marked down an additional 20%.
• Patrons can check individual commissary schedules for Guard/Reserve on-site sales and other events, such as Sidewalk Sales and Healthy Lifestyle Festivals.

GET SHOPPING

• Commissary shoppers can find their store based on location and can even select their default store with its address and hours appearing at the top of the home page. This offers customers a quick glance to see if their store is open and to get quick directions.

• Learn about CLICK2GO, the online shopping and curbside pickup service is currently available in Virginia at Fort Eustis and Naval Air Station Oceana. DeCA plans to expand the service to additional stores dependent on sales and transactions, existing infrastructure and demographics.
• Special Order forms are available online to get case quantities of items carried by your local store or items that may only be found in larger stores.
• Commissary gift cards are a great way to provide the gift of groceries to your military family and friends conveniently and quickly. Order them online in $25 and $50 denominations.
• Recipes can now be searched on the page by dish type, main ingredient or category, such as a “Holiday” recipe, “20-Minute Meal” or “Dietitian-Approved” to make finding that essential part of your meal quick and easy. Make your grocery list by choosing recipes for the week online and then check to see if the ingredients are on sale.

GET HEALTHY

• Lots of healthy living resources and videos are available on the website to help you maintain healthy and safe meal planning.
• Thinking Outside the Box recipes use items that are on sale to offer quick meal solutions for a busy lifestyle that are healthy and economical.
• Get the low-down on the commissaries’ Nutrition Guide Program (NGP). The NGP is a point-of-sale, shelf-tagging system that helps customers easily identify commissary brands and grocery products with nutrition attributes of low sodium, low fat, whole grain, no added sugar and a great source of fiber. 

GET INFORMED

• Stay abreast of commissary news and food safety recalls in the News Room at commissaries.com.

GET CONNECTED

• Links to the Defense Commissary Agency’s social media sites are integrated into the homepage. Follow DeCA on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram; check out our videos on our YouTube channel.
• Subscribe to the Commissary Connection, the official DeCA blog, where our Consumer Advocate posts about your commissary and its connection to the military community. Featured content may range from human interest stories and shopping tips to videos, notifications about Commissary programs, events and more. Sign up for email alerts to make sure you don’t miss a thing.
• Access mobile-friendly commissaries.com from your smart-phone or tablet anywhere – even while shopping in the store using the free in-store Wi-Fi.

“Before you shop the commissary do yourself a favor and check the website,” O’Neal said. “You will be pleasantly surprised at everything there that can stretch your benefit in your favor.”