The new military commissary and post exchange in Moon will be more than just places to buy groceries and uniforms and get haircuts.

They will be places where military members can socialize, almost as families do, Army Sgt. Jose Vasquez said Wednesday at the McGarity Army Reserve Center in Moon.

“One thing about family members: we try to help other people,” said Vasquez, 34, of Bridgeville.

The new $15.2 million Pittsburgh-area commissary, which is a grocery store, and $4.1 million post exchange, which is a department store, replace facilities at a mostly closed Army base in Collier, the Charles E. Kelly Support Facility.

Grand openings for the Moon facilities are scheduled for 10 a.m. Oct. 21, though the post exchange held a soft opening Aug. 13.

The relocated and expanded retail operations, which are for active and retired service members and their dependents, will support and strengthen nearby military operations, officials said.

The area 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 in a 30,600-square-foot facility on the 911th's Air Reserve Station after relocating from North Versailles.

“(The new stores) will maintain benefits of lower costs that they have enjoyed from the commissary for years, as well as from the exchange. Western Pennsylvania has one of the largest retired military populations in the country,” said retired Lt. Col. Lowery Bailey, who is chair of the Commissary and Exchange Committee of the Military Affairs Council of Western Pennsylvania.

Located side-by-side on Soldiers Lane in Moon, the commissary and post exchange, when compared with their predecessors, are larger, feature more amenities and products and are more accessible because of their proximity to Interstate 376, said Richard Brink, public affairs specialist for the Defense Commissary Agency.

The 55-year-old commissary in Collier, which will close Oct. 18, is 8,326 square feet in size, while the new store is 43,000 square feet.

The new store will feature products that the Collier site does not, such as an international delicatessen and bakery, custom-made sandwiches and rotisserie chicken, Brink said.

The number of employees will increase from 28 at the Collier store to nearly 40 at the new one, he said.

The Moon post exchange has eight associates, three more than at the old site, which closed Aug. 12, said Julie Mitchell, spokeswoman for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service in Dallas.

The new post exchange includes a military clothing store, barbershop, electronics department and products for outside the home.

Customers were pleased Wednesday.

“The way it's laid out, you got a lot more shopping room in it. Easier to get in and out … this one is more modern,” said Bellevue resident and retired Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dennis Badke, 55, who visited the new post exchange with his wife, Pam, 56.

The Collier base closed 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

“This has been around for almost 10 years, this project, the relocation. It has been so painful and so demanding that anyone involved here with it wonders if the federal government can do anything easily and well,” he said.

Tory N. Parrish is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-380-5662 or tparrish@tribweb.com.

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