A good time to be in the business of crafting things
Remember Gourmet magazine? Everything imported; if it wasn’t French or Italian, it pretended to be. Today the magazine – as well as that kind of thinking – have gone the way of Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat. Since Alice Walker opened Chez Pannise in Berkeley in 1971, restaurants have moved away from the Gourmet idea of fine dining – toward the newer, healthier local food movement. Case in point: The Farmhouse restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee. Chef and entrepreneur Trey Cioccia opened The Farm House, his first restaurant, in the SoBro neighborhood in 2013. His concept focuses on traditional Southern cuisine and [...]
The right lights turn closed cases into ‘food galleries’
By Jack Sjogren Hillphoenix Design Center Specialist Using proper lighting inside and around closed-door refrigerated cases turns glass-fronted coolers into gallery-worthy display spaces. That increases the value of your investment in high-visibility cases, such as the Clarity line from Hillphoenix. And it ensures your closed cases not only offer energy savings and product longevity, but also show merchandise at its best. Here are a few tips for putting merchandise behind doors in the best light: Use warm-colored LED lights in cool spaces. Avoid white and blue-tinged light inside refrigerated cases. Instead, use blubs on the “warm” red-to-yellow color spectrum to [...]
Lack of uniform modeling solutions hinders natural refrigeration adoption
Last month, we discussed the lack of effective performance baselines for natural refrigeration systems and how that makes it difficult for utilities to provide natural refrigeration incentives. In this article, we’ll talk about the second challenge faced by end users and utilities: the lack of good modeling software for natural refrigeration systems. When seeking incentives from utilities for natural refrigeration, modeling new system performance is key to calculating anticipated savings. “Modeling” entails determining what the energy consumption of a particular technology is, taking all variables into account and using mathematical formulas to ensure that all numbers are accurate. It’s important [...]
Add the element of surprise to create engaging closed-case displays
By Margie Proctor Hillphoenix Marketing & Design Specialist Here’s a challenge for all of you store merchandisers tasked with building great displays behind closed-case doors. Surprise and delight your shoppers with at least one unexpected design element inside the case. Imagine new possibilities Small creative touches can add interest to your in-case merchandising. Here’s a great idea for showing off sandwiches in a taco holder. The holder creates the perfect angle for displaying sandwiches — upright but not fully vertical. Plus, the taco holder’s zigzag shape adds some playfulness. Another easy idea is to display cartons of egg whites in a [...]
Smooth Operators: Small-format retailers simplify ongoing operations with CO2
Over the past several years, some notable trends have brought changes to the retail refrigeration space. Grocery stores are getting smaller, fresh-food options are gaining ground at retailers of every size, and ozone-depleting refrigerants continue to be pushed out by natural and sustainable options. At the spot where small-format, fresh-format, and sustainability converge, retailers may find themselves in unfamiliar territory when it comes to selecting refrigeration equipment for a new location or a store remodel. With the old distinctions between big- and small-format offerings becoming more than a little blurry, retailers are in need of a new kind of refrigeration [...]
Easy Maintenance Is a Bonus with Small-Format CO2 Refrigeration
In 2014, research firm Packaged Facts reported that the average size of supermarkets has been trending smaller since 2006. At the same time, consumers have continued to ask for more fresh and convenient food options, and supermarkets — along with small-format retailers such as drugstores and convenience stores — have responded by increasing their fresh and prepared food selections. And just as space is becoming more limited and offerings are becoming more complex, retailers are trying to keep up with environmental regulations to reduce or eliminate HFC refrigerants. Fortunately, there are new, sustainable CO2 refrigeration systems that make it easier [...]
Video: Is your display case stealing moisture from your meat and seafood?
Video: Is your display case stealing moisture from your meat and seafood? March 29, 2016 | Coolgenix Only Coolgenix deck pans use pulse flow control technology to maintain natural moisture levels and preserve the integrity of meat and seafood. Other conduction cooling cases claim to work like Coolgenix, but they don’t. Cases with our patented Coolgenix technology are the only meat and seafood cases with a glycol-cooled deck pan that releases moisture into the case as it cycles between set points of 29 and 33 degrees Fahrenheit. This continuous cycling is how Coolgenix maintains natural case humidity, preserving product integrity and [...]
Utility Incentives: Lack of standard industry benchmarks still a challenge
If you’re going to reward improvement, you need a baseline against which to measure it. Therein lies one of the many challenges facing refrigeration end-users seeking utility incentives for upgrades and new installations. As utilities, manufacturers and end-users work together to make newer, more energy efficient equipment more affordable through incentives, the lack of standard industry benchmarks makes the process complicated, fragmented and inconsistent. Manufacturer calculations are apples and oranges Within the refrigeration manufacturing industry, there is no uniform energy performance baseline for either CO2 or DX systems. Each manufacturer has its own set of tools for calculating energy consumption, [...]
Ease of Installation Simplifies the Path to Small-Format CO2 Refrigeration
For small-format retailers interested in making the switch to natural CO2 refrigeration, their options just got considerably more appealing. AdvansorFlex, the latest addition to Hillphoenix’s evolving Advansor CO2 platform, is engineered to ensure straightforward installation and smooth operation from day one. Whether part of a new store construction or a remodels, the installation of refrigeration equipment is a major consideration in terms of project costs, feasibility, and completion time—particularly when minimizing downtime is part of the equation. With AdvansorFlex, scalability and ease of installation now go hand-in-hand. Less Onsite Prep Every feature of the AdvansorFlex CO2 system is designed with [...]