There are many things that might cause a sailor to have to go shopping for military uniforms while at-sea. The sailor might have forgotten several shirts that were still in the wash while they were packing for a long underway period. The sailor might have one or two shirts in their rack when they get onboard on the day of deployment so there is little time left to go to the uniform store ashore.

If the sailor works in the engineering department, they will probably not have much time to go shopping in port for some uniform items that are missing. These engineering types stand many watches while the ship is underway and do shipboard qualifications during the time they are not on watch. Since this type of duty takes up a lot of personal and professional time, they rarely worry about standing any bridge or quarterdeck watches when the ship is at sea or when it is in port.

These sailors are very aware though that they are required to stand sea bag inspections in port or underway and these are inspections which can happen at anytime. Since free time is scarce, a savvy sailor might do a quick inventory and know which items are lacking in the sea bag they were issued at boot camp. They might go shopping for military uniforms while at sea because they heard through the grapevine that an inspection was being planned.

Sailors can go shopping for military uniform items in a couple of ways while the ship is at-sea. They can visit the ship's store and buy uniform items like dungaree pants and chambray shirts if that is what they need. If they need new tee-shirts the ship's store is the place to buy them because the reduced prices on these items are real money savers and sailors take advantage of each opportunity.

When shopping for military uniform products at sea, a sailor might have to buy larger sized pants than what they need. There are a limited number of sizes available for the many uniforms that a sailor is required to have in the sea bag and during long underway periods, there is a good possibility that the ship's store might run out of a certain size.

A ship's servicemen will probably check storerooms for any uniforms items that are out of stock and have them on the shelf when the store opens up the next morning. The ship's serviceman is responsible for stocking uniforms, toiletries, socks and even the white towels that are standard issue sea bag items that recruits receive on day one at boot camps in Illinois.

For uniform items that are completely out of stock, a sailor can engage the internet and go shopping at the uniform store on base and have the uniform items sent to the next port of call that the ship makes which could be anywhere in the world. This type of shopping is not stressful and gives sailors the chance to sit for a while and relax during an underway period.