Your In-Store Merchandising Maintenance Essentials for November
Are your refrigerated cases ready for the busy shopping season ahead? Even the most carefully planned merchandising strategy can be derailed by a refrigerated case failure. Especially during the holiday season, a case going down can mean lost revenue and a poor in-store experience for shoppers—not to mention the headache of scheduling emergency service calls during the busiest time of the year. Luckily, your in-store team can take a few simple steps to keep your cases running properly and catch small issues before they become emergencies. 5 Essential Refrigerated Case Maintenance Tasks for Your In-Store Team As we covered last [...]
Satisfy Shoppers with Complete Meal Solution Cross-Merchandising
44% of shoppers have made changes to the way they approach meals based on rising costs. Shoppers are feeling the squeeze of inflation, but they’re also pressed for time. That means more meal planning, more cooking at home and a rising demand for meal solutions that are simple, easy and fast. Frozen food plays a key role. Given that most consumers purchase both fresh and frozen items during the same trip, displays that cross-merchandise fresh and frozen items that complement each other to create full meals are especially effective. What This Means for Your Store Integrated cross-merchandising builds engagement across [...]
Boost Frozen Sales by Thinking Outside the Frozen Aisle
29% of shoppers aren’t regularly looking for frozen food items they haven’t purchased before. Food retailers who are winning in frozen think outside the frozen aisle when creating their frozen food merchandising strategy. Shoppers are hungry for new flavors and innovative recipe ideas, but they don’t always look for inspiration in the frozen aisles. That means food retailers have the opportunity to showcase frozen solutions for every occasion and daypart, from mealtime to snacktime, in ways that surprise and delight shoppers’ tastebuds. What This Means for Your Store: Disruptive merchandising—like adding self-contained frozen displays outside of the frozen aisle—breaks the [...]
How a Compact CO2 Condensing Unit Fits into a Larger Refrigeration Strategy
As more retailers evaluate how to modernize refrigeration, the conversation is shifting from theory to execution. The question is no longer whether CO₂ has a place in the future of refrigeration, but how to apply it in ways that work for real store layouts, budgets and project timelines. Most refrigeration upgrades do not start with a blank sheet of paper. They happen while stores operate, during phased capital cycles, in tight footprints, and under pressure to improve performance without unnecessary disruption. In that environment, compact CO₂ condensing units offer a practical and manageable path forward. Matching the Refrigeration Solution to [...]
The Pre-Holiday Refrigeration Maintenance Checklist Every Food Retailer Needs
Nothing kills your store’s festive atmosphere (or profit margins) faster than a refrigeration system or display case failure. If a busy shopper enters your store looking for premade sides and frozen pies the week before Thanksgiving, you can’t let them down with spoiled products or empty shelves caused by refrigeration problems. There’s one simple trick food retailers should know to prevent display case mishaps from wrecking your store’s merchandising strategy: schedule preventative maintenance now, before the rush. 4 Maintenance Steps to Protect Your Merchandising Strategy Before the Holiday Rush With the holiday season approaching, food retailers are preparing to support [...]
Merchandising Tactics to Boost Bakery Performance
Learn how to create food retail merchandising that boosts lagging bakery category performance.
How to Use Merchandising to Expand Dairy Category Growth
The push for protein is impacting all categories, but it’s bringing the dairy department into the spotlight, according to research presented at IDDBA. Food retailers are seeing dairy performance grow, driven by current consumer trends like real ingredients, functional benefits and low-carb products. Plus, dairy sales have been bolstered by viral recipes on social media. With the right merchandising strategy, you can leverage growing dairy performance to boost sales in other departments and continue driving growth. What Are the Top 3 Merchandising Tips to Get the Most Out of Dairy Department Growth? Dairy touches nearly every consumer, with 99.6% of [...]
2026 Food Retailer’s Guide to Frozen Merchandising
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 partnership of Hillphoenix, the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) and FMI. Click here to view the guide
Why a Single-Source Refrigeration Partner Is a Competitive Advantage for C-Stores
Today’s consumers expect more from convenience stores. No longer just a pit stop for fuel and a pack of gum, c-stores have transformed into fast-casual dining destinations, premium beverage hubs and even mini grocery stores. With food and chilled beverage sales driving the highest margins on the retail floor, your refrigeration infrastructure is the backbone of your business. But as your menu and inventory expand, so does the complexity of managing your equipment. The Benefits of a Full-Store Refrigeration Solution Provider If you’re sourcing hot food bars from one vendor, open-air grab-and-go cases from another and walk-in cooler doors from [...]
How to Make Your Deli & Foodbar a Budget-Friendly Meal Destination
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, cold bars and deli-prepared foods to get quick, convenient meal solutions without the high restaurant price tag or sink full of dirty dishes. The right merchandising strategy enables food retailers to capture more of this displaced ‘dining out’ budget, winning [...]
