Why Your Business Needs a Novelty Freezer

A lot of store owners and foodservice operations often don’t realize the true value of a freezer. More than high-volume and long-term storage, a well-built and polished freezer also enhances the presentation and appeal of various merchandise. Right behind clear glass is a bright display of various frozen products.

Could you benefit from a novelty freezer?

Before installing freezers to line the aisles of your store’s frozen section, it’s important to know exactly what you are selling, and what type of freezer best highlights their packaging and promises fresh, quality taste.

While upright glass door freezers have long been the staple of effective product placement and visual merchandising, novelty freezers are growing in popularity. The reason? They target the ‘grab-and-go’ customer base looking to quickly shop for favourites like ice cream.

Ask yourself this:

• How are you positioning delicious treats and novelties like ice-cream?
• Can customers easily see what they need and dig in?
• What do they ‘grab and go’ with?

Answering these questions helps you decide whether you’re due for a visual merchandising review — and whether introducing a novelty freezer to the mix could instantly boost sales.

What are novelty freezers used for?

These chest-style freezers have become synonymous with ice cream and other similar frozen treats in countless grocery stores. But the possibilities for food storage and visual merchandising with these freezers go beyond traditional ‘grab-and-go’ items.

While ice cream remains one of the most popular ‘grab-and-go’ items, chest-style novelty freezers promise generous storage space, making them a prime option for long-term storage of various goods like produce, meats, and baked goods.

Novelty Freezers Are Great for Storage

For store owners, novelty freezers present a lot more benefits than attractive displays and effective visual merchandising. At first glance, it may seem inconvenient to reach into these chest-style freezers, but the reward is in storage and inventory management. Upright freezers may be loved for their sleek shelves and open display of products but don’t discount novelty freezers just yet.

Novelty freezers allow store owners to store more items, eliminating the need for constant restocking and deliveries. Plus, because they’ve come to be associated with ice cream freezers, it’s easy to expand the ‘grab-and-go’ customer base to market other items, especially those of the last-minute meal purchase or impulse buy variety.

While the promise of ice cream and other treats can serve as the initial hook, finding other popular frozen goods beneath the glass panes can delightfully surprise customers, resulting in a sales lift — higher sales numbers attributed to effective product placement and visual merchandising.

Novelty Freezers Are More Energy-Efficient

Unlike their upright counterparts, novelty freezers require manual defrosting — but it’s not as inconvenient as it sounds. Manual defrosting is more energy-efficient, and it only needs to be done annually. While self-defrosting freezers promise a lack of freezer burn, they also typically use more energy to maintain this function.

To maximize energy consumption, novelty freezers should be kept at ¾ capacity, with the doors only opening when customers retrieve items. The glass panels help with that, as they provide increased product visibility, prompting customers to only open the doors when they’re sure about their purchase.

Tapping into Impulse Buys

From well-loved frozen goods like ice cream and other dessert items to meats, pasta, and drinks, the visual merchandising possibilities with novelty freezers are endless. So, what exactly are you storing in your novelty freezer?

Revitalizing your store starts with selecting the right items to go into your novelty freezers to tap into customers’ instincts for quick treats. Take inspiration from your competitors and rethink your visual merchandising strategy with these tips:

1. Packed meat and whole animals

   Serve customers farm-to-table goodness, and inspire them to whip-up new meals straight out of a novelty freezer. Store these meats for the long-term without risking freezer burn and their fresh taste.

2. Fruits and vegetables

   Fruits and vegetables are only as good as their freshness. A novelty freezer helps keep these goods fresh for longer, so customers can enjoy the same quality taste with every healthy bite.

3. Ice

   Crushed or cubed, ice is a popular ‘grab-and-go’ merchandise. Customers hosting a party or even just a backyard barbecue expect to walk into their local grocery or convenience store and get a bag of ice to pair with their drinks. And there isn’t any other place they would expect to find it than a novelty freezer.

4. Frozen meals

   Give customers a taste of home or restaurant favourites they can easily heat up and enjoy whenever they want. Keep these meals fresh for longer without the risk of freezer burn by storing them in a novelty freezer.

   
   
   

5. Drinks and dessert

   Whether it’s ice cream, cake, or specialty drinks, customers won’t be able to resist these impulse buys and last-minute purchases. There’s nothing else that screams “ice cream!” more than a novelty freezer to round out a grocery run.

To learn more about why your business needs a novelty freezer, call Ancaster Food Equipment at (855) 888-9644, or contact us here.