Refrigerated online grocery pickup and delivery is here to stay, in no small part thanks to 2020’s impact on retail trends. Maybe this click and collect option is something you’re excited about for your store. Or maybe it created a traffic jam that’s left customers frustrated.
One way to get traffic moving again is by choosing refrigeration options that will make it easy and fast for grocery pickers to load up the coolers or freezers and then unload the goods right into customers’ or delivery services’ vehicles.
Let’s explore why that’s the case, why walk-in coolers and freezers might just be your best business decision this year, and compare the costs.
First – Your Refrigeration Options: Reach-In or Walk-In?
To reach in, or walk in. That is the question. And fortunately, it’s way easier to answer than you may think.
Reach-In Refrigeration
Reach-In Refrigeration is exactly what it sounds like. Users will simply open the door and grab their food out of storage.
Walk-In Refrigeration
Walk-In Coolers or Freezers, are similar but typically have larger footprints, more interior cubic feet and can even allow users to open the door and step into the unit to retrieve their chilled items.
Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup
Online Grocery Pickup Coolers or Freezers, simply put are highly customized Walk-Ins. Engineered to fit grocery bags and/or nestable grocery totes. This optimizes storage space per cubic foot, while ensuring a perfect fit and easy access.
Different stores will prefer reach-ins vs walk-ins. Part of the consideration checklist should include intended use.
For grocery pickup, Walk-Ins are generally preferred because they are highly customizable, have larger interior capacities, and greater pack densities.
How are Leer Walk-Ins Highly Customizable?
Don’t get us wrong – we love our standard reach-ins. But Walk-Ins are a special product because we can construct them to meet our customers’ exact needs.
Unique in the industry, we offer multiple panel types:
- Soft Rail Walk-Ins
- Wood Rail Walk-Ins
- Quick Ship Walk-Ins
- Walk-In Cooler and Freezer Combo Boxes
And that’s just the start.
From right off the manufacturing line, we have our Quick Ship Coolers. They’re a standard size brought to you at a competitive price.
From here, we can keep customizing to your heart’s content. What does that look like? Our specialists will walk you through questions like:
- The temperatures your products will need to be kept chilled at
- How much square footage you have for your new cooler’s or freezers’ footprint
- How much cubic footage you need to fulfill your order volume
Bonus for grocery pickup! Our coolers and freezers are specially designed to accommodate grocery bags and/or totes, which can further streamline grocery pickup. By using totes within the unit, grocery pickers can load and unload the same order much more efficiently, saving precious minutes on each order.
Whether you use bags or totes, our easy load-in-load-out walk-ins can make the entire process go more smoothly.
The Cold Bottom Line: What’s It Going to Cost You?
Many factors go into purchasing a new asset but at the end of the day, you need to know what it’s going to cost you and if the quality is worth the price.
Let’s start with size.
Cubic Size Does Matter
One of the primary factors to consider when choosing a cooler or freezer for grocery pickup is how much it can store. The metric you’re going to want to pay attention to is cost per cubic foot.
Why?
You need to understand how many coolers and/or freezers you need to buy to store the food that goes in and out of your store each day.
To start, you’ll need to calculate your average cubic feet per order.
In case you don’t know offhand, we have a high-level Capacity Calculator to help you estimate.
Let’s dig deeper and compare our standard industry reach-in options:
Traditional Reach-Ins (Single Door)
These hold between 20-25 cubic feet of cold storage space.
Traditional Reach-Ins (Double Door)
Standard double door reach-ins offer more storage space than their single door counterparts with around 40-50 cubic feet of cold storage space.
Traditional Reach-Ins (Three Door)
Standard three door reach-ins offer more storage space than both their single and double door counterparts with around 65-75 cubic feet of cold storage space.
Leer’s S100 (Double Door)
The S100 Reach-In Freezers dimensions are 94” X 35.5” x 76.5” (W x D x H), our double door Reach-In Freezer offers 90 cubic feet of cold storage space.
Leer’s Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup
Leer Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup are available in both pre-engineered or built-to-order custom dimensions (usually ranging from 217 to 280 cubic feet), meaning it can go even larger, or smaller, than other options on the market. This is especially helpful to maximize floor space during a time when online orders are skyrocketing.
Cost per Cubic Foot Comparison*:
How to Read this Chart:
- Leer’s 4-Door Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup has a 65% lower acquisition cost per cubic foot than a Single Door (cost of product, freight, and installation included).
- Leer’s 4-Door Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup has a 44% lower acquisition cost per cubic foot than a Double Door (cost of product, freight, and installation included).
Our standard Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup is one of, if not the, most efficient solution for storing temperature-sensitive click and collect programs.
Note! Our Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup line is built to make sure you maximize every inch of space.
*Our cost per cubic foot comparison is strictly an estimation, which includes cost of product, freight, and installation. Results may vary. To calculate exact acquisition cost per cubic foot, download our
Cost per Cubic Foot Comparison Calculator!
The Refrigeration Winner?
The biggest?
Leer’s Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup clocking in at a whopping 217 cubic feet or more of cold storage space. Plus, you can build it as big as you want and however you want. But even if custom isn’t on your “must haves” list, it’s hard to beat for size, cost, and efficiency.
Most efficient?
Leer’s Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup is the clear winner here, and we’re not just being biased. Engineered around maximum pack density provides the most functional space. The grocery bags and/or totes fit perfectly maximizing the number of orders that can be stored.
The price?
Technically the lowest cost will be a traditional reach-in. But only when you look at raw dollar amounts.
But don’t count out Leer’s Refrigerated Online Grocery Pickup. After the custom measurements come in, these tend to be the largest, most affordable, and most efficient for our customers.
Choosing a new cooler is an investment. Make sure you consider the following during your next consideration round:
- Durability
- Cost per cubic foot of cold storage
- Order capacities per cubic foot
- How important customization is to your space
- Whether you need a reach-in or a walk-in
- If streamlining online orders is part of the equation (meaning, you’ll want to reduce loading time)
As you peruse your options, please don’t hesitate to reach out and chat with one of our specialists. Our goal, as always, is to make sure we’re with you every degree of the way.
_________________________________________________________________
If you enjoyed this blog, subscribe to our temperature-controlled storage solutions newsletter!
