Editing Defense Commissary Agency (section)

== Commissaries today ==
Today's customers also pay a surcharge on their purchases, which was mandated by Congress in 1952 to make commissaries more self-sustaining. The surcharge, which has been set at 5 percent since April 1983, provides modern shopping facilities for service members at a reduced cost to taxpayers. Unlike a tax, surcharge funds go right back into the commissary to work for commissary customers, paying for the cost of building new stores, renovating and repairing existing ones and purchasing equipment and store-level information technology systems such as cash registers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=136880189673357&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=106189569436342|access-date=May 3, 2012 |publisher=Defense Commissary Agency |date=July 27, 2010 |title=What is the surcharge that commissary customers are paying, what is it used for and how is it factored?}}</ref>

Commissary patrons worldwide save thousands of dollars annually on their grocery bills.<ref>{{cite web |date=October 6, 2009 |title=Commissaries save customers billions of dollars |first=Millie |last=Slamin |publisher=Defense Commissary Agency |access-date=May 3, 2012 |url=http://www.commissaries.com/press_room/press_release/documents/2009/DeCA94_09.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193858/http://www.commissaries.com/press_room/press_release/documents/2009/DeCA94_09.pdf |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  Customers can use manufacturer's coupons to save even more on their commissary purchases. Annual sales now are nearly $5 billion.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://www.commissaries.com/press_room/documents/AnnualReport.pdf |access-date=May 3, 2012 |date=June 29, 2011 |title=Annual Report 2010 |publisher=Defense Commissary Agency |page=2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018090256/http://www.commissaries.com/press_room/documents/AnnualReport.pdf |archive-date=October 18, 2012 }}</ref>

Surveys consistently rate the commissaries as one of the military's top non-pay benefits. Many young service families, particularly those stationed in high cost-of-living urban areas, could not make ends meet without the price savings provided by the commissaries. DeCA has delivered more than $2 in savings to customers for every taxpayer dollar used to support the commissary system.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> In other words, preserving this level of compensation in direct dollar payments to military personnel would cost the government more than twice the current fund appropriation.