§2488 — Title 10 Armed Forces | U.S. Code

§2488 Combined Exchange and Commissary Stores

Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle A— General Military Law › Part IV— SERVICE, SUPPLY, AND PROPERTY › Chapter 147— COMMISSARIES AND EXCHANGES AND OTHER MORALE, WELFARE, AND RECREATION ACTIVITIES › Subchapter II— RELATIONSHIP, CONTINUATION, AND COMMON POLICIES OF DEFENSE COMMISSARY AND EXCHANGE SYSTEMS › § 2488

Last updated Apr 3, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Defense can let a military nonappropriated fund group run a combined exchange and commissary store on a base. No more than ten such combined stores are allowed. A base can be picked only if it is closing or being realigned under a base closure law, or if it already has a separate exchange and commissary and keeping them separate is not economically feasible. The combined store at Naval Air Station Fort Worth, Joint Reserve Center, Carswell Field, Texas, is included. Prices, adjustments, and grocery surcharges in these combined stores must follow the same rules that apply to Defense Commissary Agency stores. If the nonappropriated fund group loses money because of those pricing rules, the Secretary may transfer funds from the Defense Commissary Agency to help, but total transfers in a year cannot exceed 25 percent of the appropriated funds that supported that commissary in its last full fiscal year. Nonappropriated fund instrumentality — examples are the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Navy Exchange Service Command, Marine Corps exchanges, or similar military-run organizations that provide morale, welfare, and recreational services.

Title 10, §2488

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary of Defense may authorize a nonappropriated fund instrumentality to operate a military exchange and a commissary store as a combined exchange and commissary store on a military installation.

(b)(1)Not more than ten combined exchange and commissary stores may be operated pursuant to this section.

(2)The Secretary may select a military installation for the operation of a combined exchange and commissary store under this section only if—

(A)the installation is to be closed, or has been or is to be realigned, under a base closure law; or

(B)a military exchange and a commissary store are operated at the installation by separate entities at the time of, or immediately before, such selection and it is not economically feasible to continue that separate operation.

(c)Combined exchange and commissary stores operated under this section shall include the combined exchange and commissary store that is operated at the Naval Air Station Fort Worth, Joint Reserve Center, Carswell Field, Texas, under the authority provided in section 375 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995 (Public Law 103–337; 108 Stat. 2736).

(d)Adjustments to, and surcharges on, the sales price of a grocery food item sold in a combined exchange and commissary store under this section shall be provided for in accordance with the same laws that govern such adjustments and surcharges for items sold in a commissary store of the Defense Commissary Agency.

(e)(1)If a nonappropriated fund instrumentality incurs a loss in operating a combined exchange and commissary store at a military installation under this section as a result of the requirement set forth in subsection (d), the Secretary may authorize a transfer of funds available for the Defense Commissary Agency to the nonappropriated fund instrumentality to offset the loss.

(2)The total amount of appropriated funds transferred during a fiscal year to support the operation of a combined exchange and commissary store at a military installation under this section may not exceed an amount that is equal to 25 percent of the amount of appropriated funds that was provided for the operation of the commissary store of the Defense Commissary Agency on that installation during the last full fiscal year of operation of that commissary store.

(f)In this section, the term “nonappropriated fund instrumentality” means the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Navy Exchange Service Command, Marine Corps exchanges, or any other instrumentality of the United States under the jurisdiction of the armed forces which is conducted for the comfort, pleasure, contentment, or physical or mental improvement of members of the armed forces.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 375 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995, referred to in subsec. (c), is section 375 of Pub. L. 103–337, div. A, title III, Oct. 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 2736, as amended, which is not classified to the Code.

Prior Provisions

A prior section 2488 was renumbered section 2495 of this title.

Amendments

2011—Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 111–383 substituted “armed forces” for “Armed Forces” in two places. 2004—Pub. L. 108–375 renumbered section 2490a of this title as this section. 2003—Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 108–136, § 1043(c)(2), substituted “Nonappropriated Fund Instrumentality Defined.—In this section, the term” for “Definitions.—In this section: “(1) The term” and struck out par. (2) which read as follows: “The term ‘base closure law’ has the meaning given such term by section 2667(h) of this title.” 1997—Subsec. (f)(2). Pub. L. 105–85 substituted “section 2667(h)” for “section 2667(g)”.