Merchandising Tip: Moist and even cooling
Moist and even cooling – the kind that actually extends the life of meat and seafood – are hallmarks of the conduction approach to refrigerated display case design. Conduction is heat transfer through the direct physical contact of two objects (or surfaces) at different temperatures. When two objects are in contact, heat flows from the warmer surface of one to the cooler surface of the other until both reach the same temperature – also known as equilibrium. A display case using conduction includes a special type of deck pan through which a chilled fluid flows. When product is placed on [...]
Small-format trend calls for refrigerated cases designed for small spaces
By Kelly Sayko Hillphoenix Case Division Small-format stores now claim about half of consumers’ short shopping trips, according to market researcher IRI, and traditional retailers are adapting. Big-box stalwart Wal-Mart is reporting same-store growth of nearly 8% at its smaller-footprint Neighborhood Markets stores, compared to just 1.1% for its standard format stores. Meanwhile, small-format rival Aldi, a German discount chain, is planning to add 600 locations in the U.S. by the end of 2018, bringing its nationwide store count to 2,000. Even megastore IKEA is trying out 19,000-square-foot spaces — 94% smaller than the Swedish chain’s largest floor plan. Come [...]
Just Because It’s Difficult Doesn’t Mean We Shouldn’t Try
By Keilly Witman KW Refrigerant Management Strategy LLC This is the second article in a three-part series on sustainability and refrigerants. In part I of my series on communicating about sustainability in refrigeration with consumers, I discussed why it is difficult to make refrigeration relevant to stores’ consumers. Notice I said difficult – not impossible. Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be a challenge. And if there is anything we all love in this industry, it’s a challenge. I received my first lesson in the relevance of supermarket refrigeration to [...]
Merchandising Tip: Less can be more
Are crowded signs, melting ice, and other distractions stealing the attention away from your fresh meat and seafood? By keeping merchandising simple, you keep the focus on the product.
Natural refrigeration is a challenging sustainability issue for consumers
By Keilly Witman KW Refrigerant Management Strategy LLC This is the first article in a three-part series on sustainability and refrigerants. In this day and age, most supermarket companies recognize that their customers care about the environment and their communities. Customers want to spend their money at businesses that share those values. They want to feel good about where they shop, so they want to know that their grocery store is helping to make their community a better place. Given these facts, and given the enormous progress that many supermarket companies have made in reducing the environmental impact of their [...]
Merchandising Tip: Ice without the hassle
Merchandising seafood without ice saves labor hours and makes clean up quick and easy. Here’s how to get the look of ice without the time and expense. For a free merchandising consultation, visit www.hillphoenix.com/designhelp.
CO2 offers unexpected benefit: less product shrink
By Derek Gosselin Hillphoenix Systems Product Manager Today’s grocery shoppers demand more fresh offerings — from cut fruit to prepared meals — and this changes the profitability equation for supermarkets. Fresh sells, but as perishables become a larger percentage of a store’s mix, it’s essential to extend how long those products are fit for sale. That’s why grocers are adding doors to refrigerated display cases and employing new, moisture-retaining cooling technologies like Hillphoenix’s Coolgenix cases in the meat department. But there’s another product-shrink solution that comes as a bonus prize in a carbon dioxide-based refrigeration conversion: consistent cooling. Traditional hydrofluorocarbon-based [...]
Merchandising Tip: Create a visual focal point
Want to attract more customers to your high-margin meat and seafood departments? Put the focus on the product. Coolgenix conductive refrigeration technology protects the integrity of meat and seafood, so your product is moist, colorful and visually appealing to your customers.
Future-Proof Your Refrigeration
By Keilly Witman KW Refrigerant Management Strategy LLC People ask me all the time if the EPA is ever going to get off their backs about the refrigerant they use. My answer is always the same: The only way that will happen is if the industry stops using refrigerants that harm the environment. For the first time since the EPA started regulating refrigerants in supermarkets, it is possible for a supermarket to operate using 100% natural refrigerants. With the use of CO2, we have a refrigerant that is safe for the ozone layer and for our climate. The EPA’s refrigerant [...]
To understand the future of commercial refrigeration, look to CO2’s past
By Derek Gosselin Hillphoenix Systems Product Manager Using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant seems like a new solution to today’s challenge of lowering the global warming potential of commercial refrigeration systems. But, as industry researcher James M. Calm has documented, the use of CO2 as a refrigerant actually stretches back to 1866. In subsequent decades CO2, ammonia and other early refrigerants took a backseat to organic fluoride-based cooling compounds. The first among them was synthesized dichlorodifluoromethane, or R-12, developed in the late 1920s. In 1930, fluorocarbon refrigerants were introduced to the market and quickly became the standard. It took us [...]