The last place in the metro Atlanta area where retired members of the US military and their families can shop at a deep discount is about to close. Now, plans to open a new one have been scrapped, raising the ire of at least one Georgia congressman.

The commissary at Fort McPherson in Southwest Atlanta is the last facility of its kind between Augusta and Columbus. It's where active duty and retired service members like Craig Allen get serious discounts on all their shopping.

"At the commissary, the biggest savings are 30-percent on grocery items and 40-percent on meats," said Allen, one of 100,000 military retirees in the metro area.

The Ft. McPherson commissary closes September 28. The Defense Department was going to replace it with a new facility at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Cobb County, but Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA) said that project has been canceled thanks to sequestration.

"It's just such a pull-back of the commitment made to our servicemen and women," Gingrey told WSB's Pete Combs. "It just seems like they get screwed over every time."

Gingrey said he and other members of Congress wrote to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel earlier this week, urging him to reconsider his decision to scrap plans for the Base Exchange at Dobbins. According to the Marietta congressman, the lawmakers told Hagel, "Look, you made the commitment to (build the Dobbins exchange) and now you're pulling the rug out from under veterans, using sequestration as an excuse."

That leaves military retirees in the metro area with a choice: If they want to shop at a commissary after Sept. 28, they can travel to the nearest commissaries, located at Fort Benning or in Augusta. Otherwise, Gingrey said, they'll simply have to pay retail.