Commissaries fire up their private brands

Private label products are becoming more prevalent within U.S. military commissaries.

The Military Times did a quick, unscientific comparison of the prices of store brands products found within the Fort Belvoir commissary in Virginia. According to the article, those conducting the study compared the prices of these products to discount retailers Target and Walmart. Here is what they found:

• Commissary store brands offer savings in comparison to national brands within the store, sometimes as much as half the price of the national brand, depending on the product. That’s generally the case with any grocer’s store brands. But from there, it’s mixed.

• Civilian discount grocers’ own store brands, generally speaking, beat commissary store brand prices. Of the 16 categories of products looked at, the commissary had the best store brand price in five. In the remaining 11 categories, either Walmart or Target store brands beat the commissary brand in 10 of those categories. In the remaining category, a Safeway store brand was the best price on sweet peas because of a sale.

To read the entire list of product comparisons, click here.