by Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service

12/12/2003 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- To soothe anxiety among servicemembers and their families about reports of Department of Defense officials closing commissaries, John M. Molino emphasized that, "We're not here looking to close all the commissaries!

"The future of the commissary benefit is very sound, very healthy," said Molino, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy. "The department is committed to maintain a commissary benefit."

Calling recent media coverage of the commissary issue "slanted and inaccurate," Molino said DOD officials are strongly supporting the commissary benefit. Economists estimate the savings to customers are 30 percent compared to purchases in supermarkets.

He said the controversy goes back three years ago. Shortly after arriving at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld asked, "Why do I as the secretary of defense run a grocery chain?"

"We did a detailed analysis of whether or not there were other ways to deliver the commissary benefit," Molino said. "The conclusion was the commissary needs to stay (as) something we do within the Department of Defense."

Molino said people tend to forget that DOD officials conducted a study and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz concluded that the "commissary is not an item for privatization."

"(DOD leaders) told us that that the commissary issue is off the table," Molino said. "Where we are now is about good management and providing the best benefit we can. We subject the commissaries to the same customer-satisfaction indexes that private-sector grocery stores do."

He said the commissary's performance is much better, and customers are happier than ever before.

"They're happier with the selection of the groceries, cleanliness and the quality of the stores," he said.

Even though DOD officials are not searching for ways to close commissaries, realistically there might be a location where there are not enough active-duty servicemembers and retirees to keep a store open, Molino said.

The No.1 priority governing keeping a commissary open is the number of active-duty people assigned, which should be at least 100, he said.