Refrigeration failures affect 4 military commissaries in Europe

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Military commissary customers in Europe may notice some empty freezer and refrigeration space when shopping for groceries on base.

Some coolers at four stores in Germany and England are out of service due to ongoing repairs and maintenance, according to the Defense Commissary Agency.

The out-of-order units are unrelated to outages that may have affected up to a dozen stores in the United States within days of each other in late August, said Jefferson Wolfe, a DECA spokesman. Military special agents are investigating the stateside outages, three defense investigative agencies said earlier this month.

At the Ramstein Air Base commissary, the agency’s largest store in Europe, whole sections of freezers are out of order. The outages are due to equipment failures and delays in obtaining replacement parts, Wolfe said.

A sign on a refrigeration display at the Ramstein Air Base commissary in Germany notes the unit is temporarily out of order on Sept. 28, 2026. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)

Signs announcing the temporary outage are posted on the empty freezers and refrigeration units at the Ramstein store, directing customers where to look for relocated products.

The temporary outage “was caused by equipment failures requiring specialized replacement parts,” Wolfe said, noting that repair work is underway and the agency is targeting mid-October for completion.

In the meantime, the store has moved displaced products to mobile chillers throughout the store, he said.

“Commissary personnel are stationed on the floor to assist patrons in finding their preferred products during this temporary disruption,” Wolfe said.

Two other commissaries in Germany — Vogelweh in Kaiserslautern and Grafenwoehr in Bavaria — as well as Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, are also undergoing partial refrigeration repairs and maintenance, as required, Wolfe said.

The outages in Europe are not connected, he said.

“The failures stem from routine wear on heavy-use equipment and manufacturer delays for specialized parts,” he said. “Each store operates independently, and the repairs underway across regional commissaries are unrelated to one another.”

A row of freezer units at the Ramstein Air Base commissary in Germany sits mostly empty on Sept. 28, 2026. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)

DECA manages 235 stores worldwide. In May, the agency awarded contracts to modernize refrigeration across 16 European stores, Wolfe said. Maintenance teams are working on scheduled upgrades alongside routine repairs “to ensure long-term reliability,” he said.

“We are working closely with regional suppliers to expedite parts procurement and swiftly restore normal operations across all affected facilities,” he said.

Late last month, some of DECA’s stateside military facilities reported issues with freezers and refrigerators, with at least six stores alerting customers online that they could not sell meat, dairy, produce or frozen foods. Some commissaries reported their appliances went into defrost mode, causing thousands of dollars of food to spoil.

The Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Cyber Field Office and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations confirmed in early September that they have active investigations into the situation. The Air Force said that the Defense Criminal Investigative Agency was taking the lead. None elaborated on the nature of the investigation. Unverified sources suggested at the time that the outages affected up to a dozen stores. No update on any findings has been announced.