MREInfo.com

I have a chance to go to an Army base PX in a couple weeks, and I was wondering what peoples experience about finding MREs in stock there might be?
I wouldn't mind the opportunity got a couple of please more recent rations. Almost everything I've got is at least six years old, if not 10.

It seems hit or miss, but you should at least be able to score some MREs that are 2013 or newer. Price may not be that great - $7-10 each depending on the PX. Sometimes you'll find other types of US rations - who knows? Might find some current issue FSRs or HDRs or something?

Before you buy anything in the PX / commissary make sure you are actually able to do so, sometimes they will scan your DOD ID card, sometimes just look at it, sometimes they don't care. Just saying, I have seen dependents (or who know's who they were) in the PX before with a cart full of stuff, only to have the staff say sorry you are not authorized to purchase here!

I shop at a USAF commissary, and they have an entire rack section devoted to MREs and TOTMs. No MCW or FSRs available, though. I can buy singly or by the case. I seldom see meals dated more than about 16 months before. Right now, I'm seeing 2015 production mostly, with some leftover (mostly unpopular) 2014 items. No 2016 production dates yet. Prices vary a bit, but singles are always exactly 1/12th the price of a case. Latest ones are running about $7.75 each for MREs and about $4.75 for TOTMs.

Yes, you do have to be authorized to buy there. Either you or your host must have a valid military active or retired ID.

Slightly off topic
A friend of mine who was a retired USAF Col would purchase MREs from the Army PX. He ate them like other people would eat TV diners.
Not for camping or any outside activity. Rather for convenience sake, he used the microwave and paper plates.
Nothing to clean up, no dishes to wash just throw it away.
He said '' I have everything I need for a quick meal and they are easier to open than than C rations were"

Norton wrote:Slightly off topic
A friend of mine who was a retired USAF Col would purchase MREs from the Army PX. He ate them like other people would eat TV diners.
Not for camping or any outside activity. Rather for convenience sake, he used the microwave and paper plates.
Nothing to clean up, no dishes to wash just throw it away.
He said '' I have everything I need for a quick meal and they are easier to open than than C rations were"

I'll admit that I do that a few dozen times a year usually. If I don't feel like cooking it's always a good excuse to cycle out the oldest stock. I do still use the heaters and eat out of the pouches though.

RockyRaab wrote:I shop at a USAF commissary, and they have an entire rack section devoted to MREs and TOTMs. No MCW or FSRs available, though. I can buy singly or by the case. I seldom see meals dated more than about 16 months before. Right now, I'm seeing 2015 production mostly, with some leftover (mostly unpopular) 2014 items. No 2016 production dates yet. Prices vary a bit, but singles are always exactly 1/12th the price of a case. Latest ones are running about $7.75 each for MREs and about $4.75 for TOTMs.

Yes, you do have to be authorized to buy there. Either you or your host must have a valid military active or retired ID.

Same here. I use an Army commissary, can buy singles or cases of TOTMs/MREs. Singles here also exactly 1/12th price of case. MREs here about $8.40, TOTMs about $4.45. And you'd need military ID to buy anything, even though you can be signed in as a guest of an ID card holder. In that case, the ID card holder does the buying.

I've never actually seen MREs at the Exchange proper, you'll have to go to the Commissary which only exists on larger bases. Even then, it's hit or miss as some will only have them at certain times of year, and some not at all.

In my earlier post, I made reference to older meals being the unpopular ones. On my last visit, there were two full racks of TOTMs and I had to dig through at LEAST 50 Vegetarian Taco Pasta meals to find one solitary Meatballs in Marinara Sauce TOTM. So either they opened several cases of TOTMs only to find that they were ALL the same meal, or people really hate that menu choice.

For the record, I have eaten one. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great, either. It rates a "Meh" on my scale of "Yuck" to "WOWser."

OK... Whazza diff between a PX and a commissary? [I did draft-deferred defence work, as opposed to serving]

I will be with a mil-dep whose hubbz just deployed for six months to Germany and Poland... this is at Ft.Stewart outside Savannah, GA.