Dive Summary:

• Benefit programs and other taxpayer-subsidized military services like military supermarkets have increased roughly 90%, becoming the fast-growing area of the U.S. defense budget.
• “We are on an unsustainable course,” said Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine major general who chairs the Reserve Forces Policy Board. “We are trading off active-duty combat readiness to protect all of these benefits.”
• “Commissaries are core to the high standards of military quality of life,” states the Armed Forces Marketing Council and the Coalition of Military Distributors. “They represent a reciprocal commitment from the taxpayer to the military people for their dedication and sacrifice.”

From the article:

For large food producers who support the logistics association — they include Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods Group — commissaries are an attractive market, Nixon said, because they do not require the firms to compete against house-label generic goods. The shelves are stocked only with brand-name items. And the aisles are filled not just with retirees but also with young families.