Commissaries at Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field will be closed an extra day a week starting in July to save money through the end of the fiscal year.
Eglin’s commissary will be closed on Mondays, in accordance with a military-wide directive.
At Hurlburt, where the commissary is already closed on Monday, the grocery store will close an additional day on Tuesday.
“Other than not being able to shop one day a week, this won’t really affect our customers,” said Luana Harris, store director of the Eglin commissary.
Commissaries provide groceries for active-duty and retired military members and their families at a savings of about 30 percent over commercial providers, she said.
About 2,000 shoppers visited the commissary at Eglin on Monday, she said. They see about 57,000 customers each month.
The biggest impact of the closure will be on commissary employees who will be required to take one unpaid day off each week until Sept. 30, she said.
“It’s going to hit the pocketbook, but you don’t have a choice,” said Donald Lewis, who has been working at the Eglin commissary for almost 20 years. “You just have to cut back on something.”
The 14,000 civilian commissary employees in the United States will be affected by the measure.
It is being implemented in response to steep budget cuts, dubbed sequestration, that went into affect in March. The Department of Defense has said they must cut over $30 billion by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Samantha Adams, a shopper at the Eglin commissary, said the closure will not have much of an impact because it will still be open over the weekend for people to get their shopping done.
Adams, whose husband is active-duty military, said she would rather see the commissary close once a week then see other cuts that affect active-duty personnel.
“It’s already hard working with what we have. There are other things that shouldn’t be cut,” she said. “This is a viable option in my opinion.”
No additional changes are planned for commissary store hours, according to the Defense Commissary Agency.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Lauren Sage Reinlie at 850-315-4440 or lreinlie@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @LaurenRnwfdn.