Polar Technology, a leading provider of refrigerant management solutions, has announced that Stater Bros., the largest privately owned supermarket chain in Southern California, is implementing its cloud-based solution called TrakRef.

Here’s a sobering thought for you: The average age of a refrigeration service technician that works on supermarket equipment is greater than 55. That’s according to Terry Roberts, president of Merchandising by Design. Her question was, “Who’s going to maintain these stores” after these ‘seniors’ leave the industry?

Danfoss is featuring its Adap-Kool® System Manager - AK-SM 800 Series, which is designed to meet the needs of supermarkets and other commercial food retail locations by enabling optimum operation and transparency of supermarket control systems.

The photograph with this column was taken from the balcony of a supermarket in the Baltimore area during a tour of several stores at the Food Marketing Institute Energy and Store Development Conference. Notice the massive amount of floor space and products on display.

The ever-changing world of refrigeration equipment regulations is getting an update. A recently published white paper addresses a variety of topics, including new Energy Star standards, new legislation affecting refrigerated display cases, and required certifications for commercial foodservice equipment.

From a global perspective, there is a lot of interest in the wider use of R-744 (CO2), especially in supermarket refrigeration. Recently, a number of international studies and seminars have reported some of the latest developments regarding R-744.

A study from Carel has tried to get a precise handle on supermarket refrigeration energy savings at various levels of upgrades and at the same time has assigned some new terminology to the steps — ‘traditional,’ ‘evolved,’ and ‘excellent.’

Have you worked with R-407A in refrigeration jobs? The mechanical design company Henderson Engineers Inc. (HEI) of Kansas City has in such a project where it was given the task by a major retailer to improve the carbon footprint of a supermarket refrigeration system.

The supermarket chain Hy-Vee Inc.’s 64,000-square-foot store in Fairfield, Iowa, opened on April 12 as the company’s second Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified store. It is one of the few supermarkets in the country that has achieved U.S. EPA GreenChill Gold-Level certification.

As new stores are built and older systems in existing stores replaced, an approach called secondary refrigeration is gaining wider acceptance and is steadily increasing in numbers.