Like many civilian grocery stores, some commissaries have been closed because of the severe winter weather in various parts of the country, and customers are seeing some shortages on the shelves because of delayed deliveries to many commissaries.
As of Friday afternoon, three commissaries are closed due to weather: those at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York; Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas; and Memphis Naval Support Activity, Tennessee, according to Keith Desbois, a spokesman for the Defense Commissary Agency. Commissaries in Texas affected by the storm are all open. But 14 commissaries across the East, Central and West regions have had delayed openings due to weather conditions.
The storm has also delayed store deliveries at many locations, he said. “The disruption is impacting some products being available to our customers, but we are working with our distributors to get orders to the stores as soon as conditions permit,” Desbois said.
At various times during the week, some bases hit by the severe storms have had to close to all but essential personnel, with a number of services such as child development centers, military clinics, morale, welfare and recreation programs cut back or closed.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
