McGuire Air Force Base Commissary assistant store manager Ashley Moats delivers groceries to the vehicle of one of the store’s first CLICK2GO customers. They were among a full slate of customers who used the internet ordering/curbside pickup service on April 6, its first day. (John Zoubra/DeCA)

By Karen Jowers

Commissary customers at six more bases will be able to order groceries online and pick them up at curbside this year.

The next Click2Go service launches at the Fort Lee, Virginia, commissary on Aug. 4. There are currently five commissaries with the service.

And officials are pushing an aggressive schedule within the next two years to bring the number up to 60 commissaries with the Click2Go curbside service. They’re also researching the possibility of grocery delivery services.

At the locations where the Click2Go service has been offered, commissary customers have increased their use of Click2Go by 43 percent in the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with pre-COVID, said Willie Watkins, chief of eCommerce for the Defense Commissary Agency, during a virtual meeting with industry members Wednesday.

Click2Go started rolling out in 2019 and is currently available at four installations in Virginia — Fort Eustis, Oceana Naval Air Station, Fort Belvoir and Quantico Marine Corps Base — and at Joint Base McGuire/Dix/Lakehurst in New Jersey. Customers have spent $1.4 million at Click2Go locations since the COVID pandemic began, Watkins said. Click2Go sales at the Quantico commissary increased by 11 percent, compared to pre-COVID.

WCatkins noted that there may be some issues in getting equipment needed for the next Click2Go implementations, which could mean some delays. But here’s the tentative schedule for Click2Go rollout during the rest of the year.

• Fort Lee, Virginia: Aug. 4

• Fort Polk, Louisiana: September

• Charleston Air ForceC Base, South Carolina:, September

• Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota: September

• Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska: October

• Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Florida: October

“We saw a tremendous response” in the Click2Go pilot program, said Lisa Hershman, DoD’s chief management officer, in an earlier interview. “Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly everybody wished [Click2Go] was everywhere. We already had it in a few places, with a limited experiment. Now the conversation has turned to, ‘how quickly can we get this put in place?’ This is something that folks are really relying on.”

Hershman has been leading reform efforts in DoD, including efforts to make commissaries more efficient, and to improve the shopping experience.