Hillphoenix supports Coolgenix customers with onsite training
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 [...]
The Shrinking Supermarket: 6 Essentials to Designing Small-Format Grocery Stores
The trend toward smaller stores is getting bigger. Small-format dollar stores and drug stores now claim about half of consumers’ short shopping trips, according to market researcher IRI. Meanwhile, traditional supermarkets are netting just 25 percent of those in-and-out sprees, IRI reports. These statistics reflect a shift in consumers’ definition of convenience. The all-in-one big box is losing its allure. These days, on-the-go consumers would rather make more frequent trips to smaller stores where they can get what they want and be on their way. In this environment, supermarkets still have an edge because they’ve got the product mix and [...]
Does your meat department need a makeover?
Want to attract more customers to your high-margin meat and seafood departments? Start by standing where they do — in front of your refrigerated display cases. Then ask yourself a few questions: Is your attention stolen by crowded signs, melting ice, visible cleaning equipment or other distractions? Does lighting give meat an off-putting, brown or grayish hue? Does seafood look slimy, rather than moist? Does product look dry around the edges? Do employees have to turn their backs on you to weigh and wrap product? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need a meat department [...]
Make Utility Rebates Part of Your Energy Improvement Efforts
By Jonathan Tan, VP Energy Services The AMS Group, Hillphoenix In the commercial building space, grocery stores rank #1 for energy intensity, using more energy per square foot than even health care facilities. As consumer demand for more fresh and frozen foods grows, energy intensity will too, with more store space devoted to refrigerated and freezer cases. Improving energy efficiency is imperative to protect grocers’ already thin profit margins. End-use energy is the second highest operating expense after labor for food retailers, and the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that every dollar saved in electricity has the same impact on [...]
Consumers’ path to healthier eating leads right to your seafood department
By Margie Proctor Hillphoenix Marketing & Design Specialist Health-conscious U.S. consumers are eating more seafood, and there’s still plenty of room for demand to grow. The National Marine Fisheries Service reports per-capita seafood consumption in the U.S. is 14.6 pounds, an amount that has increased over the last two years. Consumption of shrimp — the No. 1 seafood seller — increased 11% from 2013 to 2014. Americans eat, on average 4 pounds of shrimp a year. Per-capita consumption of salmon jumped 34% from 2012 to 2013, according to the latest data from the fisheries service. Salmon is the No. 2 [...]
New LEDs will have you seeing red in all the right ways
By Jonathan Tan, VP Energy Services The AMS Group, Hillphoenix Over the past decade or so, grocers have been reaping merchandising benefits of LED lighting in freezer cases. Despite initial limitations in LED color quality and total light output, both its cooler color temperatures and uniform illumination have literally cast frozen foods in a favorable light. Along with creating the ideal look and feel, LED’s superior performance at lower temperatures and greater energy efficiency compared with fluorescent lights have been a real win for grocers in the freezer aisle. LEDs have finally surpassed fluorescents in color fidelity. The good news [...]
Prepare for Refrigerant Regulation Changes; Future-Proof Your Business
EPA’s SNAP Phaseout Schedule for Alternative Refrigerants The wait is over. Food retailers and the refrigeration industry were in a holding pattern for months while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considered its next move on alternative refrigerants. Then, in mid-July, a 90-page ruling published in the Federal Register (pp. 42870-42959) confirmed what Hillphoenix and other industry experts had anticipated: Widely used refrigerants R-404A and R-507A would join the list of alternatives being phased out under the EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program. Now retailers and manufacturers have the facts. Like the ruling or not, the industry finally can take [...]
Before and after: Speedy fixes for merchandising mistakes
By Margie Proctor Hillphoenix Marketing & Design Specialist With no budget and only the merchandise on hand, I partnered with an independent supermarket customer to overhaul a closed-case display. The store’s merchandiser was focused on SKUs she was responsible for and spread the product too thin — so the set looked picked over. By cross merchandising, we were able to create a full set and increase sales. Giving customers a visual cue that “This goes great with that!” works just as well behind doors as in open cases. You can see the results in these before-and-after photos. Adding baskets and shelf [...]
Revealing food merchandisers’ secrets for closed-case refrigerated displays
By Margie Proctor Hillphoenix Marketing & Design Specialist Here’s a merchandising secret that’s kept far too well: Putting doors on refrigerated cases will enhance your displays. Skeptical, are you? Well, keep reading to discover just how compelling closed-case merchandising can be. Create a food gallery. The visual stimuli on store shelves can be overwhelming to consumers. All those shapes and colors can create sensory overload — especially when a shopper is strolling past vast stretches of open refrigerated cases. But add doors to those cases, and you define the field of vision. Shoppers see one area at a time and [...]
Energy efficient solutions from a shopper’s point of view
By Jonathan Tan, VP Energy Services The AMS Group, Hillphoenix Our relationship with food is changing. Cooking shows, celebrity chefs, open kitchen designs. Instagram photos. Grocers bringing alternatives into the mainstream. The resurgence of the farmers market. The list goes on and on. For a mix of health, social, economic, and sustainability reasons, people are engaging more deeply with food. They talk – and think – about what they eat, how they prepare it, and where they buy it. And food shopping is no longer a list-driven routine for replenishing the pantry. For more and more people, it’s an experience [...]