Defense Commissary Agency The Defense Commissary Agency ( DeCA ) , headquartered at Fort Lee , Virginia , is an agency of the United States Department of Defense ( DoD ) that operates more than 250 commissaries worldwide . American military commissaries sell groceries and household goods to active - duty , Guard , Reserve , and retired members of all seven uniformed services of the United States and eligible members of their families at cost plus surcharge , saving customers an average of more than 30 percent compared to civilian supermarkets . History . The commissary benefit is not a recent innovation . Sales of goods from commissary department storehouses to military personnel began in 1825 , when Army officers at specified posts could make purchases at cost for their personal use ; by 1841 , officers could also purchase items for members of their immediate families . The modern era of sales commissaries actually began in 1867 , when enlisted men received the same at - cost purchasing privileges officers had already enjoyed for four decades . No geographic restrictions were placed upon these sales ; the commissary warehouse at every Army post could become a sales location , whether they were located on the frontier or near a large city . From the start , commissaries were meant to take on - post retail functions out of the hands of civilian vendors and post traders and allow the Army to “ care for its own . “ The stores provided wholesome food beyond what was supplied in the official rations , and the savings they provided supplemented military pay . The modern concept of commissary sales stores , which were established to benefit military personnel of all ranks by providing healthful foods at cost , reached its 143rd anniversary on July 1 , 2010 . The commissary retail function developed and grew , roughly parallel to the development of the retail grocery industry . The commissaries ’ 82 - item stock list of 1868 was comparable to the stock assortment in a typical civilian dry goods grocery store at that time . Commissaries kept pace with developments in civilian supermarkets , and the average commissary today has approximately 11 , 000 line items ; the largest stores have several thousand more . The list of eligible shoppers has also grown . Originally , only active - duty Army personnel could shop . Today , personnel in all services , including the Coast Guard and National Guard , may shop in the commissary on any U . S . military installation , around the world . Retirees , first allowed to make commissary purchases in 1879 , have shopping privileges , as do reservists and members of the National Guard . Spouses and dependent children of service personnel are also authorized commissary privileges . As the role of the American military grew larger , commissaries began to spread around the world . The first overseas stores opened in the Philippines and in China in 1899 to 1900 . They were soon followed by commissaries in the Caribbean and Panama . Eventually , all the services adopted the Army ’ s concept of commissary sales stores and tailored the concept to their own needs . The Navy and Marine Corps opened their first commissaries in 1909 and 1910 , and the Air Force inherited its stores from the Army Air Forces in 1947 and 1948 . By the mid - 1970s , each of the services ran its own commissary agency , with differing procedures and systems : the Army Troop Support Agency ( TSA ) , the Navy Resale System Support Office ( NAVRESSO ) , the Commissary Section of the Marine Corps Services Command , and the Air Force Commissary Service ( AFCOMS ) . Separate systems combined . In 1989 , Congress directed DoD to conduct a study of the separate military commissary systems . The ensuing report by the Jones Commission ( headed by Army Lt . Gen . Donald E . Jones ) recommended consolidating the service systems into one agency to improve service and save money . The Defense Commissary Agency ( DeCA ) was established May 15 , 1990 , by a memorandum from the deputy secretary of defense ; this was the first DoD functional agency consolidation during the post - Cold War cutbacks and downsizing . DoD appointed Army Maj . Gen . John P . Dreska as the agency ’ s first director in June 1990 . Shortly afterward , a transition team of commissary functional experts managed the consolidation of all the service systems into a single agency , and DeCA assumed full control of all commissaries on Oct . 1 , 1991 at its headquarters in Fort Lee , Va . After leading DeCA through its initial year of operation , Dreska retired in 1992 , and Army Maj . Gen . Richard E . Beale Jr . became the new director . Beale retired from the military Sept . 30 , 1996 , but stayed on the job as the first civilian director of the agency . He was succeeded by Air Force Maj . Gen . Robert J . Courter Jr . ( November 1999 to August 2002 ) and Air Force Maj . Gen . Michael P . Wiedemer ( August 2002 to October 2004 ) . Patrick B . Nixon , who served as director and CEO from October 2004 to October 2007 , was the first person in U . S . history to become director of any commissary agency after beginning his career at store level and steadily rising through the commissaries ’ civilian career field . Following Nixon ’ s retirement , Richard S . Page served as acting director until the arrival of director and CEO , Philip E . Sakowitz Jr . , in June 2008 . Thomas E . Milks was acting director and CEO , from Sakowitz ' s June 2010 retirement until Joseph H . Jeu succeeded Sakowitz 3 June 2011 . Commissaries today . Commissaries still sell products at cost today as they have since 1825 . 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 . Commissary patrons worldwide save an average of more than 30 percent on their grocery bills . In 2010 , DeCA announced that the average family of four saves more than $ 4 , 400 per year by shopping regularly at a commissary , based on Consumer Expenditure Survey and U . S . Department of Agriculture statistics for household consumption of retail grocery store products . Customers can use manufacturer ' s coupons to save even more on their commissary purchases . Annual sales now exceed $ 5 billion . Surveys consistently rate the commissaries as one of the military ’ s top nonpay benefits . Many young service families , particularly those stationed in high cost - of - living urban areas , simply 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 . 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 . The commissary system has disagreed with the post exchange system over who should sell what . Merging the two might save $ 9 billion over ten years .