Fresh & Easy Installs Case Doors in 35 Stores

MICHAEL GARRY

ATLANTA — Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, El Segundo, Calif., has installed framed glass doors on medium-temperature cases in 35 stores and plans to put them in 170 locations, said Steve Hagen, director of national procurement and engineering.

The doors, supplied by Remis America, Elkhart, Ind., were attached to cases containing beer and wine, packaged deli, meat, fish, poultry and non-liquid dairy.

At one test store, Fresh & Easy determined that the doors would save more than 100,000 kilowatt hours annually, or just over $10,000, given a utility rate of 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, said Hagen during a presentation yesterday at the Food Marketing Institute's Energy & Store Development Conference here.

The doors were also found to cut shrink by 50%, improve merchandise visibility and temperature control, and increase dwell time by shoppers because aisles are warmer, he said.

Contrary to concerns that glass doors impede sales of refrigerated product, Fresh & Easy test stores saw increases in sales "in every case that had glass doors," Hagen said. "The customer gets the idea that glass doors are just like the doors on their home refrigerators. They would never take the doors off their refrigerators."