CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Air Force spouse Valerie Jackson shopped the commissary on Wednesday at this Marine Corps installation because the shelves are much emptier at nearby Kadena Air Base.
“The Kadena commissary is kind of lacking in supplies and we’re wanting tacos tonight,” Jackson, 31, told Stars and Stripes. “My husband went the other day and said that there was hardly anything left, like milk, sour cream, cheese.”
A “perfect storm” of supply chain issues coupled with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has arrived at Defense Department commissaries worldwide, leaving shelves empty and shoppers frustrated.
The New Year brought food shortages to Japan and South Korea, according to Facebook posts by military commands and notices on blank shelves and dairy cases.
Chilled items and dairy products have thus far been hit the hardest.
“For the immediate future, do not expect our commissary shelves to be stocked at levels that we are used to,” said a Facebook post Tuesday by Camp Kinser, a Marine base on Okinawa. The Defense Commissary Agency, the post states, “sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience this may cause the community, but they are doing all they can to get product to the shelves.”
The same California distributor supplies commissaries in Japan and South Korea, so all are equally affected by shortages, said Kalani Patsel, commissary zone manager in Okinawa, in an email Thursday to Stars and Stripes.
Products are trickling in and shelves may be restocked by the end of the month, according to Patsel and store notices.
The same supply chain issues plaguing U.S. retailers the past year are to blame for shortages at military commissaries. Higher consumer demand, a backlog of container ships at ports around the globe and a shortage of drivers to haul merchandise away are contributing to the problem.
“We have 100s of containers with commissary products sitting out in the US ports waiting to get off-loaded,” Patsel wrote. “Now top that with a COVID case in any of these chain links and supply interruptions will occur.”
It’s a “perfect storm” of supply-chain disruption, “amplified” by COVID-19, he said.
Resupplying overseas commissaries is the top priority for the Defense Commissary Agency, Patsel said. He said he expected sufficient supplies are coming to meet demand, but panic buying could complicate matters.
Milk, cheese, butter, sour cream and yogurt, along with eggs and chilled juices are conspicuously absent from shelves at most U.S. bases in Japan. Patsel said coffee creamer is the most requested item on Okinawa.
“There will be times that we won’t have an item in stock for whatever the reason is,” he wrote in his email, “however, I can assure you that we are doing our utmost to try and get the necessities to the customers as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, local grocery stores are still an option for U.S. military consumers. Even under a stay-at-home order imposed until Jan. 24 by U.S. Forces Japan to stem the spread of the coronavirus, base residents are allowed to shop in off-base stores as an essential service.
On Wednesday at the Camp Foster commissary, Navy spouse Roxane Evans, 30, had seen enough empty shelves.
“If they don’t have what I need on base,” she said, “then I am just going to go out in town.”
