This book has been out awhile, but I just ran across it. It's a solid book on the Px in World War 2. It's fairly well written and seems to be thoroughly researched (it's a new topic for me so I have no way of rating the accuracy).
The book gives some background on post exchanges, which go back to 1900 or so, with the aim of providing inexpensive items to the then poorly paid Army. Apparently there wasn't much in the way of the Px in Europe in World War 1, but fairly extensive aid organizations such as the Red Cross. Cooke sees the effort to provide our soldiers with small luxuries as something of a failure, and he blames General Pershing's firm belief that his soldiers were not going to accept charity. There's a bit on the interwar period, but the main focus is 1940 to 1945 or so. The post exchanges hd some highly effective advocates and theArmy seems to have been determined that soldiers would share in small luxuries--things like candy, cigarettes, beer, shaving creams, razor blades, toothbrushes.
The organizational structure and names are a bit tediously complicated, but the end organization was Army Service Forces, responsible for post exchanges in bases and in cities near where soldiers were serving--and interestingly there were mobile exchanges. In combat areas the items were passed out for free. Elsewhere the system was based on making a small profit to keep the system running, but prices were quite low. Cook describes the complicated process of getting items to the troops, made more complicated by supply problems such as a cut in malt supplies for beer making and a shortage of glass bottles to put the beer in. Glass bottles could be reused but there was no railroad space to ship the empties in the states (they'd not be recycled from abroad). There was even a shortage of cork, used then to line bottle caps to assure freshness. The book also covers in some detail cigarettes--only the top 5 brands were wanted, and a prodigious amount was consumed.
Among the interesting details are the rivalry between the Navy and Army over getting beer, and the problem with exchanges where women served, with men not quite understanding service women's wants. A fascinating aspect is the large problem of the black market and Px goods both in shipment and in stock, the items were scarce and much wanted in Europe. Preventing theft was a difficult problem to solve.
There's a good deal more. but this should give a sense of the book. Post Exchanges were scattered quite widely, from North Africa to Iran to Australia and India--and later of course in the occupied areas of Japan and Germany. There's also a little of how the postal services got packages to the front, and interestingly, how the Px system had a catalog so that soldiers could send presents to the homefolks, like sending flowers to Mom for Mother's Day.
There are plenty of subjects here for further books.
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![Chewing Gum, Candy Bars, and Beer: The Army PX in World War II by [James J. Cooke]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kYcrW7apL._SY346_.jpg)
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