Shopping carts are a customary sight in the grocery store aisles, but a much larger cart will be pushed through the aisles by commissary workers, now that the Defense Commissary Agency, or DeCA, has launched its new initiative, CLICK2GO, at the Fort Belvoir Commissary.

Col. Michael Greenberg, Garrison commander, complimented the commissary team and the selection of items available in the sprawling store.

"The Commissary benefit is a tremendous value to our military Families. Commissary shoppers are seeing increased savings and new initiatives to make shopping easier," said Greenberg. "There is a buzz building around Commissary CLICK2GO. I am sure the added convenience of online shopping will be well-received by the Fort Belvoir community."

With CLICK2GO, eligible shoppers can place online orders at commissaries.com. After creating an online account, shoppers select their items and a grocery pick-up times that's convenient to them. There's a dedicated grocery pick-up area on the southeast corner of the commissary. Customers drive up and ring a bell to alert staff; an assistant checks your ID for order confirmation, and then retrieves the order. Orders can be picked up from 11:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., and there is a $4.95 convenience fee added to each order. During the first month of the CLICK2GO service at Belvoir, the fee is waived.

The commissary uses specialized staffers, called pickers, who can shop for as many as nine orders at the same time. The large cart they use has numerous plastic bins and a computer screen that maps the location of every item the picker needs. If a product is out of stock, shoppers get an email asking them to accept a suggested alternate.

"CLICK2GO and online shopping has been a project of mine for almost seven years," said Willie Watkins, DeCA chief of eBusiness. "Fort Belvoir is now the third commissary utilizing our enterprise business solution, after launches in Fort Eustis and Naval Air Station Oceana, both in southeast Virginia. We're having another launch at Quantico, Dec. 2, and rolling out more locations as we go."

This latest initiative comes on the 28th anniversary of the Defense Commissary Agency taking over responsibility for providing the commissary benefit to U.S. Service members and their Families.