So what's with the open fridges at supermarkets?

[johnjohn320]

Doesn't it seem an awful waste of electricity to keep all those fridges wide open with no doors or covers whatsoever on them? Just blowing cold air out into the open? I know people go in and out of them often, but they also do that with the freezer doors (that open and close). And it's not like they turn them off at night when the store closes. Am I missing something? How could that possibly be cost-effective with your energy usage? Even the "green" Whole Foods-type places do this.

 

[Nebor]

That's a good question.

 

[coldmeat]

Doesn't it seem an awful waste of electricity to keep all those fridges wide open with no doors or covers whatsoever on them? Just blowing cold air out into the open? I know people go in and out of them often, but they also do that with the freezer doors (that open and close). And it's not like they turn them off at night when the store closes. Am I missing something? How could that possibly be cost-effective with your energy usage? Even the "green" Whole Foods-type places do this.

That's not really any different than AC, and I don't see you complaining about that.

 

[Nebor]

That's not really any different than AC, and I don't see you complaining about that.

Well, they do have doors on the front of the stores to keep the AC in...

 

[zinfamous]

Well, they do have doors on the front of the stores to keep the AC in...

many times those doors are open, because they have blowers that create a wind/heat barrier of some sort to trap the AC.

similar to the open cooler. I remember someone explaining this shit to me a while back, but none of that coolant is lost. It's actually super efficient.

I want to say that the walls of the coolers are super-cooled, or kept cold behind their surface, and combined with the frozen items on display, the entire system is rather efficient.

or something like that. Anyway, I know I was mollified when I asked about it.

 

[johnjohn320]

That's not really any different than AC, and I don't see you complaining about that.

Do you A/C your whole home to the temperature of your refrigerator (between 35 and 38 degrees)? I already figured hanging out at your place would suck, but now I know I'd be freezing my ass off, too.

Seriously, I'm pretty surprised you don't see the difference between A/C and a refrigerator.

 

[coldmeat]

Do you A/C your whole home to the temperature of your refrigerator (between 35 and 38 degrees)? I already figured hanging out at your place would suck, but now I know I'd be freezing my ass off, too.

Seriously, I'm pretty surprised you don't see the difference between A/C and a refrigerator.

How else am I supposed to keep my meat cold?

 

[johnjohn320]

How else am I supposed to keep my meat cold?

Touche.

 

[dank69]

heat rises

 

[BladeVenom]

Cold air is denser so most of it stays in.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

it must be economical or they wouldn't exist.

 

[Skillet49]

They must work out fine economically. I used to work at a locally-owned grocery store and we actually went from the kind with the doors to the open kind so I can't imagine that it didn't save them money or at least cost the same to keep cool.

Not to mention if all coolers had doors, could you imagine how long the line would be at the egg one with everyone checking their eggs.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

What would probably make more sense and I'm surprised I haven't seen more of is the motion lighting in both the open and closed cooler cases. The lights only turn on when your in front of it. I've only seen it at target

 

[dullard]

Not to mention if all coolers had doors, could you imagine how long the line would be at the egg one with everyone checking their eggs.

If we are worried about electricity usage, then the real question is why the heck are we refrigerating eggs to begin with. Most of the rest of the world has eggs out in the open at room temperature (eggs last perfectly well for weeks/months at room temperature). They laugh at us for refrigerating them. It is about as stupid as if we refrigerated our bags of sugar in the grocery stores.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

If we are worried about electricity usage, then the real question is why the heck are we refrigerating eggs to begin with. Most of the rest of the world has eggs out in the open at room temperature (eggs last perfectly well for weeks/months at room temperature). They laugh at us for refrigerating them. It is about as stupid as if we refrigerated our bags of sugar in the grocery stores.

eggs do not last for months. After two weeks your eggs are pretty stale.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

If we are worried about electricity usage, then the real question is why the heck are we refrigerating eggs to begin with. Most of the rest of the world has eggs out in the open at room temperature (eggs last perfectly well for weeks/months at room temperature). They laugh at us for refrigerating them. It is about as stupid as if we refrigerated our bags of sugar in the grocery stores.

Eggs age significantly faster at room temperature than when refrigerated. And if you're keeping eggs for months, you're eating rotten eggs.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

If we are worried about electricity usage, then the real question is why the heck are we refrigerating eggs to begin with. Most of the rest of the world has eggs out in the open at room temperature (eggs last perfectly well for weeks/months at room temperature). They laugh at us for refrigerating them. It is about as stupid as if we refrigerated our bags of sugar in the grocery stores.

There is a valid, albeit ridiculously namby-pamby reason for keeping eggs refrigerated. They last just as long at room temperature, the issue is salmonella. The refrigeration retards the growth of salmonella while being at room temp allows the bacteria to bloom and grow. When an egg is properly cooked there's no difference between a room temp egg and a refrigerated egg and when salmonella isn't present there's no difference between a room temp egg and a refrigerated egg. But in an egg that's tainted with salmonella and improperly cooked there's a BIG difference between a room temperature egg and one that's been kept cold. The refrigerated egg will have a much lower level of salmonella and will be a lot less dangerous.

This might effect one out of every 1,000,000 eggs or so, so it's pretty much a non-issue. But the FDA is covering their own asses because there is a difference no matter how rarely it crops up. At this point it won't really matter what the FDA says, it's cultural now. The American mindset is that eggs HAVE to be refrigerated and the consumer won't buy them any other way.

many times those doors are open, because they have blowers that create a wind/heat barrier of some sort to trap the AC.

similar to the open cooler. I remember someone explaining this shit to me a while back, but none of that coolant is lost. It's actually super efficient.

I want to say that the walls of the coolers are super-cooled, or kept cold behind their surface, and combined with the frozen items on display, the entire system is rather efficient.

or something like that. Anyway, I know I was mollified when I asked about it.

You might have been mollified, but you didn't get the right answer. An open refrigerated case as a supermarket is not all that efficient. Maybe moreso than a consumer level kitchen refrigerator with the door left open, but not all that much more. Open-door cases are a HUGE money waster. HUGE. Refrigeration/freezing costs in a supermarket are astronomical, it's the biggest operating expense after payroll. Putting doors on the cases would save a lot, the numbers I have heard are 20-25% savings over open cases and they're not expensive to buy. The reason they're not used is that if they were the customer would shop somewhere else. Americans are so lazy they would change stores rather than open doors in the dairy, meat, deli and produce cases. It's that simple.

 

[CPA]

What would probably make more sense and I'm surprised I haven't seen more of is the motion lighting in both the open and closed cooler cases. The lights only turn on when your in front of it. I've only seen it at target

My Kroger has the motion lighting in the closed coolers.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Eggs age significantly faster at room temperature than when refrigerated. And if you're keeping eggs for months, you're eating rotten eggs.

nope, eggs last a pretty long time in the fridge.
easily 1-2 months.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

nope, eggs last a pretty long time in the fridge.
easily 1-2 months.

Define last? They are very noticeable stale after 2 weeks. I can actually tell when I eat stale eggs from the upset stomach and rotten stale egg farts they give me.

 

[crownjules]

I've always wondered about the open refrigerators/freezers in supermarkets. You can tell the cool/cold air isn't contained within those cases because it's always noticeably colder in those areas of a supermarket. Whereas the areas that do have closed doors aren't as bad. Though I think the open bed type cases, where you reach down and everything is lying on the bottom, works since cold air will just sit at the bottom and not be able to spill up above the walls. Not too many places use those outside of Trader Joe's.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Define last? They are very noticeable stale after 2 weeks. I can actually tell when I eat stale eggs from the upset stomach and rotten stale egg farts they give me.

maybe my taste buds aren't as sensitive as yours, but i definitely don't have any stomach troubles with eggs that are 1+ months old.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

maybe my taste buds aren't as sensitive as yours, but i definitely don't have any stomach troubles with eggs that are 1+ months old.

your just more accustomed to eating stale eggs. Good for you I guess.

 

[Raizinman]

I also have wondered why Costco has their enclosed vegetable area open (about the size of a garage door) all the time for people to walk in and out. The temperature inside this area is around 40 degrees. The rest of the store is about 72'ish. Being that cold air gravitates closer to the ground, the cold air certainly leaks out from this garage door opening. Due to the amount of people and store employees that need into this room all day (including fork lifts) I can see why the door is permanantly open. Does it cost more? Yes and no. I believe it doesn't cost that much more because it offsets the stores cooling system.

 

[johnjohn320]

Yeah, I hear a lot of people here saying "cold air sinks, it stays put." But, (a) many of these fridges are flat up against a wall, with merchandise going up vertically, and (b) as others have pointed out, it's always noticeably quite a bit colder in those areas of the stores, so clearly the cold air is permeating the whole area.