PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE - It's arguably the military's biggest perk - a huge grocery store that's part Whole Foods, part Costco, part international market. Only cheaper.

The new $20 million commissary south of Colorado Springs ran out of its 500 shopping carts soon after opening here Friday as airmen, military wives and retirees created traffic jams in the aisles and waited more than an hour to pay for stockpiles of food intended only for them.

"It's one of the real valuable benefits of being in the military," said Master Sgt. James Rush as he led a visitor around the bustling store.

Among the 19,000 items filling the shelves: imported treats such as plantain chips and European coffees from some of the far-flung places where shoppers have served.

The 103,000-square-foot store - more than half of it retail space - holds everything from junk food to Godiva chocolate products to gluten-free fare.

"If you walk up and down every aisle, that's three-quarters of a mile," store director Bobby Ming said.

The first thing to greet arrivals on one side of the new store: three Japanese chefs preparing sushi for the display case that surrounds them.

Exotic meats line the cases in the back of the store.

"We've got organic goat and buffalo," said Danny Cox, who manages the meat department. "We had veal and lamb already. Now we've got frog legs."

Rattlesnake and elk, too.

Commissaries sell products at cost, tacking on a 5 percent surcharge, meaning that shoppers wind up paying far less than they would at a typical grocery.

Customers gobbled up samples from vendors who were on hand for the grand opening. The many freebies included thick slices of organic beef from Howard, S.D., and rounds of sausage made by Denver's Old Timer Brands.

"We've already gone through 25 cases of our Honey Bourbon sausage," said Brady Corriere, Old Timer's managing partner.

Door prizes were even more generous: washer/dryers, flat- screen televisions and barbecue grills. The store's parking lots were full by the time the store opened at 9 a.m., forcing latecomers to park in makeshift spaces across the road.

Each shopper got a free bottle of Turkish olive oil.

Ted Johnson, who retired from the Air Force in 1982 and works as a cashier at the Fort Carson commissary, stood in a checkout line with a cart piled high with food.

His wife, Paulina, reached for a rotisserie chicken off a warming stand. "I'm not going to want to make lunch when we finally get home," she said.

There were lines to get in the store, lines to wait for shopping carts, lines snaking through the frozen-food aisles to the checkout counters. All 16 of them were staffed with two baggers, as were eight self-service stations.

Shoppers seemed to take the waits in stride, even an active duty airman who had to spend more than an hour in the store just to stock up on cases of soda and other drinks for his squadron's booster club.

"It's still the first day," Airman 1st Class David Moreno said of the shopping frenzy.

Describing himself as "the cook of the family," Moreno said he expects to spend more time perusing the aisles after noticing "items I've never seen before" on the base.

Huge selection

A sampling of the 19,000 items available opening day:

• Organic meats, veal osso bucco, rattlesnake and quail

• Fresh sushi bar and seafood flown in several days a week from California

• Bottled Godiva Chocolate drinks

• All-natural White Chocolate-Peanut Butter spread

• Organic papaya mango body cream

• Thai Jasmine Rice in 20-pound bags

• Black Forest Cake Mix

kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068

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