thank you healther that acutally explains alot................................lolz

Yeah... between the Japanarrazzi (I say that with love) and the carts not really having a place to restrain her... shopping out in town is more of a struggle . I usually put her in the CDC to do it, if they have space.

ETA: She's fair and blonde... she looks nothing like my son (who is in my avatar) he's jealous because nobody ever wants to touch his head..

fresh chicken being 'imported' into japan is not allowed, not for military. and, DeCA is also not allowed to slack-out frozen chicken, though they can slack-out other frozen products folks want to use like-fresh.  part of the chicken thing (as we were told 2.5 years ago at a training i went to in sasebo) is b/c of an agreement DeCA has w/ the japanese government..there were/are(?) worries about some kind of contamination of something-or-other.  bread from the states is always shipped OCONUS frozen, arrives frozen & then (in sasebo), kept in the freezers, but in europe it can be slacked-out.  i know some of the meats at the commissary here are 'fresh', but may have been frozen for transport & then slacked out.  hope that helps the chicken issue i've seen people bring up.

Posted By gbeckwith on 28 Jan 2010 08:37 AM
I don't like $7 grapes either. I don't like empty shelves, I don't like a lot of stuff. One of the things I DO like to do is to find out why things are the way they are. So I ask the commissary managers.

1 Non-Japanese produce is imported via ship from the states. That means transportation charges must be included in the cost. A lot of produce that is out of season (grapes, apples, oranges) in the states are imported from other countries which means additional charges.

2 Transportation of product is done on a regularly scheduled basis but sometimes Japanese holidays can cause delays. Sometimes the ships just don't make it on time.

3 There are also annual contracting issues with local and regional suppliers which can lead to delays and empty shelves.

4 Expiration dates (best if used by) are ball park figures based on may variables regarding the product, handling issues and packaging. Packaged items that are shelved with past-due expiration dates have been lot-inspected by the very good Army Veterninary staff and approved for continued sale. (I don't see anyone complaining about having to use expired coupons.)

5 FFV is another matter. All I can say is the commissary staff does the best it can with what they have.

"It ain't like this in the states" is a comment heard all too often from new arrivers. I give the same answer all of the time: You ain't in Kansas anymore, Toto. The military does the best it can to accomodate families and make life as comfortable and as close to statside living as it can. This is also not Yokota or Kadena where space and warehousing is not an issue. All of the commissary warehousing is in Yokohama at North Dock. That means transportation delays because there are only so many trucks.

All of you family members asked to be here. You knew you were coming to a different country and should have known things would be a bit different. Suck it up, learn to live with it and learn to adapt to the world around you. As mentioned too many times around here, there are plenty of other options available to you, which I'm not going to take the time to mention. Part of the adventure is learning that on your own and then teaching others.

Good luck and enjoy your stay.

Thank you for posting it.  Most people do not know about everything that goes into the price of FFV at the commisary and I hate people complaining about it.  This goes out to every one else Also for the cola issues stop putting you shop on base most of the time on your survey.  that is the reason for the decreases, everyone lets there non military counterpart fill it out, who inherently tells the truth.  just my opinion

Holy crap.. here we go again with the smug self righteous... "you asked to be here so don't gripe"
GEEESH. So we are supposed to just say everything is dandy all the damned time???

If you don't want to read complaints.. stay off the rant thread.. DUH.

NOW back to the topic... I think prices are jacking up all over the states which is not surprising considering what the current administration is doing to the monetary system.

I tried to buy a SINGLE apple the other day and they wanted $1.75... seriously it is really getting ridiculous and i suspect it will only get worse... time to learn how to shop off base for as much as possible.....

I guess because of the value decreased in US$$ makes shopping off base more pricy, too. However we still need to learn how to live in this environment. i shop in commissary twice a week and shop off base once a week. I cannot live without commissary becasue it's getting too pricy if I shopping everything off base. I remember i just bought 4 small items from LIVINGS, it cost almost $20...

I cannot live without commissary because it's getting too pricy if I shopping everything off base.

If Japanese people can do it, so can we.... It may be a little more expensive, but its all the way we shop. Japanese dont normally buy things in bulk. They buy for a few days at a time. They also find very cheap vegetable stores, and they buy certain things from different locations, to save money.

I really don't think japanese eat as much as we do. i saw a woman paid 20,000yen for her one time grocessary, men..it's almost $300...and i don't think these are enough food for my family. i need to buy things both from base and off base to lower my cost of living...IMO

Posted By japanesespeaking on 16 Nov 2010 01:59 PM

i saw a woman paid 20,000yen for her one time grocessary, men..it's almost $300...

That was just her lunch. 

We buy only the basics at the commissary. Things like fruits and vergetables are much better and sometimes cheaper. They last longer. We are looking for potatoes for Thanksgiving.. commissary wants $9.00 for a bag! That's crazy. I would rather spend that out in town and get better quality. AVE here I come!!!!

Who has seen the up charge on their commissary receipt?????? What's that about?????

I stand corrected.. it's a surcharge of 5%... sounds almost like a tax.....
here's the article on it...
https://www.commissaries.com/documents/contact_deca/faqs/surcharge.cfm

Which is exactly what I said in my earlier post: "The surcharge is to cover the cost of construction & modernization of commissaries around the world."