Hundreds of shoppers lined up outside a new commissary in Moon before filing in to admire pumpkin-colored signs and walls, shiny floors and the bargains available Tuesday.

About 400 people — politicians, active and retired service members, and others — attended the opening of the Pittsburgh Area Commissary and Moon Township Exchange, side-by-side on Soldiers Lane and near McGarity Army Reserve Center.

The facilities sell discounted goods and services to active and retired service members and their dependents.

The commissary, a grocery store, cost $15 million to build, and the post exchange, which opened in August with a department store and barber shop, cost $4.3 million. They replace facilities at the Army's closed Charles E. Kelly Support Facility in Collier.

The Kelly base shut down under the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005. But military members and volunteers lobbied legislators to persuade the military to keep the post exchange and commissary in the Pittsburgh region, said retired Air Force Col. J.L. Kintigh, chairman of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Job Retention and Military Service.

“It's been 20 years in the making and many of the people who contributed have moved on in life or have died,” said Kintigh, referring to the threat of closure that began in 1995.

The Moon facilities are larger and offer more than their predecessors, officials said.

The Collier commissary, built in 1959, closed Saturday. It was 8,326 square feet, compared to the new store with 43,085 square feet. The new post exchange's 7,402 square feet of retail space is 33 percent larger than the comparable space in Collier, according to the Army & Air Force Exchange Service in Dallas.

These facilities will serve 36,386 shoppers in the immediate area and support 168,000 service members, retirees and their families within a 100-mile radius of Western Pennsylvania.

The stores are in an area that is home to the Army Reserve's 316th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the Air Force Reserve's 911th Airlift Wing, and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard's 171st Air Refueling Wing.

In June, the Navy Operational Support Center opened at the 911th's Air Reserve Station after relocating from North Versailles.

Washington resident Christina Lunardini, 41, a chief warrant officer with the 316th, didn't shop in Collier but will use the new stores that are near her civilian job at McGarity. “You really can't beat their deals,” she said.

Maj. Jaclyn Berger of the 316th, a Uniontown resident who works at McGarity, bought milk, cheese, beef jerky and pasta sauce. “I love the prices. They are so much better and the convenience of it being right by my work on that road, I can go right before I go home,” she said.

Commissary shoppers buy items at cost, plus a 5 percent surcharge. Customers save about 30 percent, on average, compared to shopping in commercial groceries, said Richard Brink, spokesman for the Defense Commissary Agency.

At post exchanges, shoppers typically save 25 percent on name-brand products and there is no sales tax, said Julie Mitchell, spokeswoman for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service.

Tory N. Parrish is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-5662 or tparrish@tribweb.com.

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