The summer of 2018 will forever be a symbol of progress for military spouses. This is the summer that the commissary people finally talked to the exchange people, and they both finally listened to what we’ve been saying for years. Everyone agreed that it’s just kind of silly that beer and wine aren’t sold in both places. The DoD showed favor upon us and made it so: Buying beer and wine at commissaries will be a legit thing by the end of the summer — hey, just in time for back-to-school!
But, Seriously, When?
The solid-gold memo that had us all excitedly adding beer and wine to our grocery lists was signed on April 27, and according to an article in Military Times, that means that the boozy inventory will hit the shelves within 90 days of the ink drying. You know how things can slide to the right, though, so don’t panic if you breeze through the doors of the commissary on day 91 and find it’s still as dry as the deployment is long.
It’s Day 92 and It’s Still Dry Up in Here
If those 90 days do come and go and you still can’t buy your fancy cheese where you buy your wine, we need to talk. Sit down.
You’ll be able to get beer and wine at commissaries, just not all commissaries. There, there — here’s a Freedom’s Choice tissue — dry your eyes. Unlike military families, which can be found worldwide, commissaries with wine and beer on the shelves can only be found at the following 12 locations:
- Arnold Air Force Base
- Fort Leonard Wood
- Fort Myer
- Fort Sam Houston
- Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station
- Little Creek
- Nellis Air Force Base
- Port Hueneme
- Quantico Marine Corps Base
- Shaw Air Force Base
- Twentynine Palms
- White Sands Missile Range
If you didn’t make the cut, thanks for coming out; you showed a lot of potential — better luck next year. But, before that optimism spirals out of control, there aren’t yet talks of expanding the sale of beer and wine to other commissaries.
OK, now that’s not enough optimism — let’s not end things like that.
Think about it this way: This is a historic move for commissaries and their shoppers. Aside from a few (obviously failed) trials, this has never been done. So, if you 12 above-named commissaries could knock it out of the park, so the DoD might expand this delicious convenience to the rest of us, you’d be doing us a solid favor. And if you won’t do it for us (even your dear friend from two duty stations ago who’s currently in still rereading that list somewhere in Japan, wondering why the heck we couldn’t get one single OCONUS commissary), then consider this. That is a short list. You could be stationed anywhere next year. As soon as you get used to the one-stop shop, you could be demoted right back to a two-stop shopper. Do a good job, you lucky 12. Let’s spread the convenience and make beer and wine at commissaries a military-wide thing — 12 more…12 more, everybody now, 12 more…
Photo Credits: Unsplash
Resources: Military Times
