Eglin Afb West Gate Shoppette

When visiting the Fort Walton Beach, Florida area, one needs to visit the West Gate Shoppette at Eglin AFB. It 's worth a visit and sure to meet all of your local shopping and nutritional needs. My entourage and I were confined to the base due to lack of transportation and all dining establishments being closed, so we visited the West Gate Shoppette. We found it refreshingly abundant in its diverse selection of foods, drinks, and souvenirs. It is well worth the walk since there is really no other place to go beat feet. As you approach the Shoppette, you will first notice the large gas pavilion where those privileged to operate motor vehicles can obtain gasoline. There, you can purchase regular, mid-grade, and premium fuel blends (all unleaded, of course). I asked if it 's ok to take photos and the villagers there simply smiled and gestured to go ahead. But what we really wanted to do was go inside the main Shoppette since it was raining on us. As you enter the low-arch foyer with sliding doors, you are greeted by a shopkeeper who may or may not ask for your ID depending on his mood and on his suspicions on whether you belong in there or not. Security seems to be of utmost importance; they obviously want to keep the riff-raff and street urchins from bothering their customers. Once you make it in, the wild abundance of local treasures awaits! I recommend that you first walk through all of the aisles to quickly scan the medley of shelves, counters, racks, and freezers to see what catches your fancy. After you do that, you can go back to those areas which seem the most interesting (otherwise you 'll be in here forever). As for me, I checked out the breakfast selections (it was late morning, but hey, I 'm on vacation where there are no rules, lol) where I bought a local favorite: the refrigerated Jimmy Dean egg/sausage biscuit sandwich. With some help from the store merchant, I managed to warm it up in a microwave device. As I ate my breakfast, I wandered around the Shoppette, noting the local villagers who were there buying their native staple foods. I was concerned that I might be overcharged on my sandwich for being a tourist, but I was not. Perhaps this is highly indicative of the honesty and friendliness of the local populace. I did try to haggle over a bar of local candy called Snickers but it appears there 's no bargaining here, perhaps even frowned upon culturally. Other foods were available. As I was getting ready to travel in an airplane soon, I looked for foods that would not be messy during my ride. Universal fare like beef jerky strips (certainly made from the local cattle), pretzels, Starkist snack packs, and corn nuts were available. They also had bottled drinks (I was afraid they wouldn 't have Pepsi, but they did) and alcoholic drinks as well. My friend Darren in fact bought like 12 cases of some hard-to-get beer. Later, I perused the reading section which held magazines enjoyed by the Eglin denizens. There were titles like Good Housekeeping, the cryptically-titled FHM, plus those with puzzles like Top 200 Sudoku and Celebrity Crosswords. While I didn 't purchase any of the local reads for myself, I can tell that these intellectual Eglinites are certainly no simpletons! After spending about 10 minutes in there, I was certainly exhausted, but was glad I came here. It certainly should be a #1 TripAdvisor destination, if it could only get those votes.