Whiteman Commissary closed Mondays, Tuesdays starting July 8

  • Published
  • By Joseph Jeu
  • Defense Commissary Agency director
FORT LEE, Va. --  Beginning July 8 through September 30, your commissary will close on Mondays as a result of furloughs because of sequestration. This is in addition to any day your commissary might normally be closed. For example, commissaries that are normally closed on Mondays will now close on Tuesdays, as well, during the duration of the furlough.

We know that any disruption in commissary operations will impact your community. During this time you may be assured that your commissary staff, with the support of all of us in the Defense Commissary Agency and our industry partners, are doing all that can be done to assure delivery of a commissary benefit that's worth the trip.

To answer, up front, some questions you may have:

- Your commissary is not alone. The decision to close commissaries on Mondays impacts nearly all commissaries with only a few overseas exceptions - commissaries where there are sufficient Local National employees to remain open. The DeCA Headquarters will also close on Mondays, as part of the furlough.

- Why Monday? Monday is one of our slow sales days. This helps minimize the impact on customers.

- Your commissary customers will still be able to enjoy the same selection of products, savings, sales, and services during the days the store is open.

- Customers can easily find out about changes to their store's operating schedule at www.commissaries.com: use the "Locations" link, then "Alphabetical Listing," to find your store and then check out the "Local Store Information" link.

All of us in DoD are facing the challenges of sequestration. We at DeCA are empathetic to the actions, including furloughs, you too must undertake in the daily operations of your installation. In line with DoD direction, DeCA has also imposed a hiring freeze on all outside hires, curtailed official travel for all conferences, training and any other events and activities considered noncritical to the Agency's mission, and cancelled its May case lot sales events for all commissaries.

We are in this together, and though limited in our ability by circumstances we cannot control, I assure you we are doing all we can to mitigate the impact of sequestration on our patrons, employees, industry partners and on our mission to deliver the commissary benefit.

Your commissary store director is your point of contact for questions you may have about your commissary and its operations during this time. Please feel free to contact them with concerns you may have, and we will give them all due consideration.

The Whiteman AFB Commissary can be reached at (660) 687-5655.