The commissary will today launch a new online shopping and curbside pick-up pilot program at Fort Lee, Va., an Army base South of Richmond, officials announced July 9.
The program, called Click2Go, will let shoppers select their merchandise via the commissary’s website, choose a pick-up time and then retrieve it in front of the store.
No dragging the kids into the building. No waiting in line. No cranky checkout lady. And no tipping the bagger.
At Fort Lee and ready to start shopping? Go here and let us know how it goes.
The pilot program will also be launched at Offutt Air Force Base Aug. 20, Neb. and Travis Air Force Base, Calif. Sept. 24. Officials expect the pilot program to last one year before it’s reassessed and perhaps rolled out to other stores across the commissary system.
According to the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), online shopping will work basically like it does if you're actually in the store.
While the commissary website has a complete run down of how it will work, here are couple of the more interesting points:
There will be no fee for the service and you won’t be allowed to tip since the work will be done by a commissary employee, and they are not allowed to accept tips.
Not everything will be available this way. The site says there will be a “limited” selection of things like meat and seafood available. For example, at Fort Lee ground chicken and turkey are the only poultry meats available from the butcher meat department -- if you want chicken breasts you're going to have to go into the store yourself.
You can still use coupons and the commissary coupon card. But the folks getting your groceries off the shelves won't gather those handy store-based coupons for you.
You have to place your order at least four hours before you want to pick it up.
The website won’t be completely up to date with what the commissary actually has in stock. You’ll be asked during the check out on the site whether you’d like to “allow substitutions” if they are out of a certain item. That’ll work great if you don’t care whether or not you get Skippy or Jiff peanut butter, but not so well if you’re super picky about your ice cream brand.
Just because it’s one price on the website doesn’t mean that’s what you’ll be paying when you pick-up. The commissary will charge you based on the item’s price at pick-up not at the time you place the order. That means if something goes off sale between when you ordered and when you pick-up, it’ll cost more than you were planning. But it also means that the opposite is true – you could end up spending less than you thought you would.
You will only be able to pay with credit card or debit card run as a credit card. Cash or anything that requires you to enter a PIN will not be allowed, the fact sheet says.
You can see the rest of the FAQs and all the nitty gritty details on the commissary site here.
Since I can already envision myself shopping this way I sincerely hope this pilot program goes well. Dragging my littles into the commissary or any grocery store is pretty much my most hated task of any given week. Curbside pick-up for the win!
