The ContractingBusiness.com/Supermarket News Refrigeration Roundtable was held during HVAC Comfortech/HVACR Week in September 2010. It brought together leading refrigeration contractors and their supermarket customers to discuss issues and share best practices.

This article is our final look back at the 2010 Roundtable. It offers our panelists’ opinions on doors on cases, training, and attracting new talent to commercial refrigeration.

Read the first three articles in this series:

• Part I, "Refrigeration Issues on the Table"
• Part II, "What's the Best Alternative?"
• Part III, "Questions Surround Refrigerants, Warranties"

To Door or Not to Door
Stan Shumbo, president, Eastern Refrigeration, Colchester, CT believes doors make sense.

"With doors, the Btuh requirements are reduced, which in turn reduces the horsepower required to run these cases," Shumbo said. "Another benefit is reduced frost buildup between defrost cycles, and a more comfortable shopping experience. Closed cases keep the store conditions more comfortable because of much less spillage into the aisles.

"Of course, there's an added cost on the maintenance side that comes along with adding doors," Shumbo added. "Door hinges, gaskets, anti-sweat heaters, and sometimes broken glass doors add to the maintenance costs. In some cases, additional energy is required to operate anti-sweat heaters, and the doors have to be kept sweat- and fog-free, so the product is clearly visible to the customers."

Jon Perry director of energy and maintenance, Farm Fresh, Virginia Beach, VA, said the door debate is actually an old one that he recalls hearing more than 20 years ago, when doors were installed on open, multi-deck, frozen food cases. Those cases switched to glass door cases years ago, and there have been people who still felt the glass on the doors decreased sales, because people wouldn't open the glass doors.

"Those doors have certainly become well-accepted over time. The energy savings from putting doors on the product is just so great," Perry believes. "As far as customer reaction, if I need a pound of butter, I'm not going to let a door prevent me from getting it. However, I do realize that some of the concern that doors will reduce impulse buys," he said.

Dan Steffen, vice president of AAA Refrigeration Services, Bronx, NY— the 2008 Contracting Business.com Commercial Refrigeration Contractor of the Year —believes acceptance of additional doors represents a cultural change, that if fully adopted, "just takes some getting used to,” and doesn’t mean stores will see an adverse effect on revenue.

"If you go to a convenience store, you see many cold products behind doors," Steffen said. "We're finding that the big-box retailers, such as Target or WalMart, have most of their products behind doors. Some of our independent customers have had us install cases with doors, and they haven't seen a drop in sales."

Jim Kirk, AAA's manager of energy services, said some products don't preserve well inside a door-enclosed case.

"Yogurt for example is best preserved in multi-deck cases," Kirk said. However, I think we should be moving towards doors whenever possible. There has to be a learning curve. Merchandisers don't like doors, but there's a gradual change taking place." Kirk also believes time will bring a change, and will open new merchandising "doors."

"As the old guard moves out and younger people move into management positions, the energy side of the argument is carrying more weight, and you're seeing those decisions made," Kirk said. "But, there are certain products you'll never be able to convince merchandisers to put indoors, such as produce items."

Jim Galehan HVACR manager for Giant Eagle, and Charles Dinsmore, director of engineering, Weis Markets, Sunbury, PA, said the change to a greater number of doored cases will be directed from the upper levels of store management.

"We're at the whim of what operations folks say, and whether or not they believe that doors would have an effect on the customers' shopping and on store merchandising. A change has to come from the operations side," Dinsmore said.

"As energy regulations change, the cost of new doors, and the cost to repair them becomes less expensive, they'll be considered, and research and return on investment studies will be done," Galehan added.

Harrison Horning, director of energy and facility services, Delhaize America, parent company of Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, ME, believes doors on open cases make sense. "On low-temperature (frozen food) cases it's a no-brainer. On medium-temperature cases it also makes sense. It's cost-effective, especially in areas with high energy costs," he said. "It reduces the size of refrigeration systems, and it's a very effective way to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. I think U.S. supermarket companies are finally getting over the fear of reduced sales, and some of our customers are beginning to expect us to have doors on refrigerated cases. Our great-grandparents figured this out many years ago, and somewhere along the line we lost our way. It's nice to see we're getting back on track."

John Gallaher, vice president for the Hill PHOENX refrigeration systems division — a Roundtable co-sponsor — said some Hill PHOENIX customers are experimenting with glass door cases on what have traditionally been open cases.

"The primary driver is energy," he said. "On January 1, 2012, the Department of Energy's 2012 energy regulations for display cases go into effect. This means that all display cases, open- or reach-in, will have to comply with those energy consumption guidelines. Hill PHOENIX has been aware of this, and has made significant investments to ensure that our cases either meet or exceed these guidelines for all cases."

Regarding doors' effect on sales, Gallehan said he's heard both sides of the issue.