WASHINGTON -- The Food Marketing Institute here issued a letter thanking Secretary of Defense William Perry for his decision to go forward with a plan changing the way tobacco products are sold in commissaries.
be about 20% -- rather than 40% to 50% -- lower than private-sector stores.
"At a time when the federal government has announced a major new underage smoking initiative placing significant restrictions and burdens on the private-sector grocery industry, the continued availability of half-priced cigarettes in commissaries sold free of state and local taxes would be irrational and unfair," FMI President Tim Hammonds wrote in the letter, dated Oct. 25.
"It is noteworthy that the proportion of cigarette sales in commissaries is already more than twice that in private-sector stores, and a large proportion of these sales are to retirees. Rational policy demands that this subsidy be ended and that commissaries should focus on their primary purpose -- the sale of food and staples to active-duty personnel," Hammonds said.
