Open-air coolers in the middle of the store can help accommodate a growing demand for fresh.
By John Wallace
Situation: Shrinking revenues from the middle of the store
For years, a major U.S. grocery chain had largely taken the middle of its stores for granted — and it wasn’t alone. Throughout the food retail industry, all the action took place on the perimeter of stores.
The grocery chain had encircled its stores with new shopper-friendly delis, cheese shops, wine boutiques, bakeries and coffee stands, refrigeration cases and so on. The middle of their stores? That’s where you’d find shelves full of the same cans, boxes and jars of the dependable brands and staples you’d find in any food retail store.
However, in recent years the chain had noticed a distressing sales trend. As the size of the middle of the store shrank, so did overall store revenues. The major brands saw sales of their dependable products dropping as much as 2.8% per quarter. In a low-margin industry, the chain realized that they had to bring the pizzazz and flair of the perimeter right up the middle of the store to drive traffic and boost sales.
And, with better-for-you foods on the rise (according to a survey by the National Association of Convenience Stores, 61% of convenience retailers experienced sales gains in 2017), keeping fresh food beyond the perimeter of the store and redesigning space to provide more open-air coolers occupying the center of the store will help to accommodate this growing demand—even in a convenience store.
The grocery chain’s solution was to break up the aisles of shelfing by bringing in new, low-profile refrigerated units showcasing exciting refrigerated products and packaging from major brands.
But as the chain evaluated their stores, it saw a major problem. Bringing refrigeration units into the middle would be easy. Keeping them working properly and monitoring their performance would be hard.
Challenge: Keeping your cool without tearing up the store
Maintaining consistent temperatures in low-profile, open-top refrigeration units exposed to ambient air is a constant challenge. But there’s no room for compromise: keeping temperatures in a narrow, controlled range is an essential step for retailers in maintaining food quality and safety. Doing so meant the store would have to hook up sensors to monitor and control the temperatures in these free-standing cases. But standard temperature sensors require wiring. That was the problem: there wasn’t any. All the wiring in their stores was inside the store walls — nowhere near the center of the store.
They had two options for wiring up the sensors. They could install poles to carry wiring from the ceiling down, a costly and unattractive prospect. Or they could shut down their aisles, rip up their floors, and run wires through the concrete, a slow, messy and expensive process. Construction for either of these solutions would cause disruptions to customers for days. To maintain food quality, it was a problem they would have to face, until they discovered they didn’t need wires at all.
Solution: Cut the cord
A wireless sensor system allowed the chain to go wireless — and realize major time and cost savings.
With the wireless sensor system, the chain was able to connect temperature probes, product simulators and other refrigeration sensors in critical refrigeration equipment throughout the store, starting from the perimeter and extending to the new units in the middle. The all-wireless solution would allow them to collect critical temperature and other key data quickly and continuously; data helps store managers monitor perishables, which can maximize shelf life, reduce shrinkage and ensure safety.
The probes, product simulators and other sensors are connected to a wireless module inside the cases. The module transmits refrigeration data to a remote wireless gateway overhead that converts the wireless signals into usable, real-time information, allowing for continuous monitoring and data to be used for supervisory controls.
Using patented energy harvesting technology, the wireless module can transmit a signal across a substantial range using a minimal amount of energy. With a clear line of sight overhead, the signal is strong and reliable enough to reach up to a 100-foot radius, and can be extended through repeaters to span greater distances for reliable coverage throughout an entire store.
The quality of the wireless refrigeration data significantly helps the retailer maintain food safety and quality, which has become even more critical with recent changes to the Food Safety and Modernization Act.
Beyond helping the chain maintain its reputation for high-quality products, the wireless sensor system delivered major cost savings right from the start by eliminating costly network and power wiring. Oftentimes, an entire wireless sensor system can be installed storewide in just 3.5 hours, compared to the days of disruption spent installing hard wiring through ugly poles or torn-up concrete. The result? A potentially 70% savings in installation costs when retrofitting stores, and cutting construction costs on new retail stores by up to 15% by eliminating unnecessary wiring systems.
Once installed, the grocery chain also realized savings by avoiding fluctuating temperatures and the shrinkage they cause, as well as reducing energy costs with their highly energy-efficient wireless system.
The chain firmly believes maintaining food quality is its top priority. Customers trust the chain to provide fresh, nutritious products consistently — day after day, year after year. This type of solution allows food retail locations to monitor refrigerated equipment in stores and continually ensure proper merchandise temperatures — even in the free-standing showcases located in the middle of their stores.
John Wallace is the director of innovation at Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions. He has been active in the design and development of electronic control systems for more than 20 years and holds several patents related to the control of HVAC and refrigeration systems.
For more information, visit Emerson.com