More than four months after the military commissary at Mitchel Field, New York, closed, customers still don’t know when the store will reopen.
“This is the only commissary on Long Island. For it to close with basically no information, and the only backup plan is to order from the Fort Hamilton store and have it delivered to Mitchel Field one day a week is ridiculous,” said Robert Craddock, a disabled Navy veteran who shopped at the store regularly for discounted groceries until it closed in early July.
“I’ll be going to my sister’s for Thanksgiving, therefore the little I need to bring, I will get elsewhere,” he said.
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There are about 36,184 eligible households within 20 miles of the Mitchel Field store, including 4,049 active duty households, according to Supunnee Ulibarri, spokeswoman for the Defense Commissary Agency’s Central/Eastern U.S. and Europe regions. In fiscal 2024, members of 6,783 households shopped at the store, including 2,134 active duty households.
Installation leadership and commissary agency officials decided to temporarily close the store in early July because of structural issues with the ceiling, Ulibarri said. The nearest commissary is 31 miles away in Fort Hamilton, New York, which Craddock said is more than an hour’s drive away because of traffic and road restrictions.
Built in 1954 as part of the Navy’s fuel depot for the former Naval Air Station Brunswick, the store is an aging facility, Ulibarri said.
“The closure allows us to conduct safety and structural assessments and develop repair plans necessary to ensure a safe, healthy shopping and working environment for our patrons and employees,” she said.
Officials are still actively assessing the structural safety of the store. A structural engineering site investigation was completed in late October, she said.
“Right now, we cannot address reopening until we complete structural assessments,” she said. “Short- and long-term repair plans are currently under review.”
The Mitchel Field commissary building “is not that big, to take now close to six months to inspect,” said Craddock, the Navy veteran. “Not to mention that the 5% fees charged by DeCA are supposedly for facility maintenance.”
In late August, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., and local elected officials joined with veterans to call for action to open the commissary’s doors again, according to a report by News12 Long Island. Meanwhile, the station reported, many veterans were using a nearby food pantry for veterans.
As of Oct. 2, commissary officials have set up deliveries from the Fort Hamilton commissary so that customers can pick up grocery orders they’ve placed at least 48 hours in advance on Wednesdays using the commissary Click2Go online system.
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.
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