More Commissaries Lose Bakery, Deli Sections

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Commissary shoppers at 22 more stores will be without deli and bakery sections, likely until early June, according to officials with the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA).

That means all gourmet cheese, fresh rotisserie chicken, fresh deli meat, fresh bakery items, salad bar, deli sandwiches, custom cakes, sushi bar (if you have one) ... gone, at least for now.

Twenty-two more military commissaries shutdown their bakery and deli sections after the Defense Commissary Agency canned the contractor responsible for operations. A letter posted at commissary on Fort Polk, Louisiana warns patrons that the bakery and deli sections could be closed until June.

Officials late last month decided to scrap a contract with contractor Nayyarson for the operation of bakery, deli and sushi sections in 22 commissaries in the midwest, Colorado and New Mexico thanks to the company's poor performance.

But that wasn't the only operation contract the company held. And last week officials decided to terminate the final two -- one of the Gulf Coast area and on for the Great Lakes area, officials said.

That means all commissaries Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania could be without the products carried in those areas until June, officials said while they drum up a new contractor.

Twenty-two more military commissaries shutdown their bakery and deli sections after the Defense Commissary Agency canned the contractor responsible for operations. The deli case at Fort Polk, Louisiana is empty and sad.

As with the first set of stores that closed their counters  -- all commissaries in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota and Wyoming, as well as Fort Bliss and Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas -- this is a small annoyance for most shoppers but a big deal for others. Most of these stores are located in areas where similar options are available in town.

But for some locations, like Fort Polk, Louisiana, that is not the case. The nearest store that carries the same high quality Boars Head lunch meet previously stocked at the commissary deli is at least an hour away, one shopper told me.

At all but one of the 22 stores originally impacted DeCA was able to come up with a stop-gap measure. They hired the outgoing Nayyarson employees on as temporary DeCA employees while they search for a new contractor. Employees at one store at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, didn't want to take the temporary offer.

DeCA is hoping to be able to do the same thing at the newly effected stores as well. If that is the case, they will likely reopen sometime in the next few weeks.

 

Photos courtesy of a SpouseBuzz reader.

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