Good point, many of the PX or BXs do have MREs available and it's probably the only place that you can legitimately buy a military MRE over the counter. The only drawback is that you will have to pay the "official" government price for it, which is currently about $7.25 each per DSCP. Though you can be assured of getting something that is reasonably fresh that hasn't sat in someone's shed or garage in uncontrolled temperature environments. On the other hand, active and reserve members can often come by a couple of leftover meals from training exercises and they may be able to get one or two for you to try.
A full MRE package may not be what you actually want due to weight and bulk, and you may end up doing what many of the GIs do and field strip it for the contents that you are going to use and leave the rest behind, which would defeat the expense of buying an entire MRE package.
Getting back to your original inquiry, one other option that you might want to consider is getting some of the components of the now discontinued Ration, Cold Weather (RCW). The site that scott.cr referenced does have a menu listing of those rations at
http://www.mreinfo.com/rcws.html. Almost all of the components of those rations are available commercially at retail stores. For the main entree ration, look for the Mountain House ProPacks at your local sporting goods store (or for an even larger portion get the 2 person serving packs like the Marine Cuisine closeouts.) Just about everything else in the RCW can be found in your local grocery store. For the oatmeal, use two of the commercial packets to get the same amount (I prefer the WalMart Great Value house brand because it has better packaging, a longer shelf life, and tastes the same as the more popular Quaker brand. Also costs a little less.) But the bottom line is that freeze-dried foods are not cheap, they do cost a lot more than the retort foods. Even Uncle Sugar pays considerably more for these types of foods.
If you like Asian foods, you're in luck. Retort packaging has become far more popular in Asia than in the U.S. and you may be able to find a lot of retort goodies in an Asian grocery store. And there are a number of companies that are importing Indian vegetarian items in retort packaging from India, you might be able to find some of them in your favorite local supermarket. Some of the Indian packages are complete meals with a vegetarian entree and a rice packet (as an example,
Taste Bites has them for about $3 per package.) If you have a Trader Joe's near you, they have 3 different Tuna Curry entrees for $1.39 from Thailand (supply your own Minute Rice.) There are even some retort foods from Japan and Korea that are self-heating entrees, though I'm not too familiar with those. If you're interested in commercially available self-heating entrees, Heater Meals are about $4 each if you order them directly from the company (in cases of 12), but as I mentioned earlier, they're pretty much the same as the Hormel/Dinty Moore trays that you can get for about $2 from a local store.
One of the guys I camp with is an MP, I'll ask him to check his PX next time he goes, for some MREs. Thanks!
