Rising grocery costs and a greater focus on balancing convenience and nutrition have driven measurable growth in frozen foods. With frozen sales up year-over-year, food retailers can leverage insights and key trends to create a frozen merchandising strategy that boosts basket size, share of stomach and shopper loyalty. 2026 Food Retailer’s Guide to Frozen Merchandising features actionable takeaways from a [...]
Inflation is shifting consumer mealtime behavior, opening up new opportunities for food retailers. Rising restaurant prices and takeout costs are pushing consumers on a budget to rethink dining out. On the other hand, cooking from scratch is time-consuming and it doesn’t always fit into busy schedules. Enter the “Third Way”: foodservice at retail. Consumers are increasingly turning to hot bars, [...]
There were 5,120 supermarkets with transcritical CO2 (R744) refrigeration systems in North America (Canada and the United States) in 2025. While that’s just 6% of all supermarkets in North America, CO2 refrigeration has been growing rapidly in the sector, with installations jumping roughly 75% from 2023 to 2025. All of this growth has been driven almost entirely by racks, and [...]
Inflation is fundamentally rewriting the retail breakfast, lunch and dinner playbook. Some consumers are becoming exhausted by restaurant menu price inflation, service fees and tipping fatigue. On the other hand, cooking every meal from scratch can also be exhausting and it’s far from convenient. Shoppers are discovering “The Third Way.” It’s not cooking, and it’s not dining out. It’s retail [...]
DeCicco & Sons, which operates 11 high-end supermarkets in Westchester and Putnam counties, New York (north of New York City), is opening in May its first Connecticut store in Greenwich, its seventh new store to be equipped with transcritical CO2 (R744) refrigeration in the past decade, along with two converted stores. Only three stores remain without CO2, and those will [...]
Today more than ever, shoppers are eating dinner at home. A whopping 4 out of 5 people prepare dinner at home at least 4 nights a week, and more than 1 in 4 prepare dinner at home every night, according to the latest The Power of Foodservice at Retail Report. With more shoppers eating at home, meal planning is on [...]
Experienced food retailers know how much merchandising impacts shopper behavior. In the deli department, this is especially true. The latest Power of Foodservice at Retail Report reveals that 61% of shoppers learn about deli-prepared offerings just by walking through the store. That’s great news for food retailers looking to increase deli sales, because it means your shoppers are on the [...]
More shoppers are turning to retail foodservice, according to the latest The Power of Foodservice at Retail Report. Department, dollar and unit performance all increased for prepared foods and deli foodservice over the last year. But there’s still a gap between what shoppers are looking for and what they find. Half of shoppers report that their store’s prepared food is [...]
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., March 4, 2026 – Hillphoenix, part of Dover Food Retail and Dover (NYSE: DOV) and a pioneer in designing environmentally sustainable refrigeration systems, today announced the launch of the Next Generation Flex Mini. This high-performance CO₂ transcritical system provides a versatile, future-proof refrigeration solution designed for food retail and industrial applications.
CONYERS, GA – Hillphoenix, part of Dover Food Retail, a pioneer in sustainable refrigeration solutions and a steadfast advocate for the frozen food industry, is proud to announce its featured participation at the upcoming AFFI-CON conference on February 22, 2026. Building on years of active partnership with the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), Hillphoenix will take the stage for the [...]
