AIBU to wish media will understand that supermarket chillers are empty from poor design, not demand?

[Auburngal]

Many supermarkets have had chillers and freezers emptied due to the extreme heat.

It really annoys me when media claims it’s because customers are buying more food. It’s not

Our supermarkets are badly designed.

Things that create the problems of breaking down of fridges and freezers

. Poor or non existent maintenance of chillers and freezers
. Europe’s’ chillers and freezers have larger compressors - so more robust
. very few of the chillers have doors.
. customers opening the doors to freezers and standing there to cool down

The food is in walk in chillers and freezers in the back. Plus sometimes a trailer chiller comes.

The staff have been told only to give certain items to customers otherwise they will take ages to get to items. Sometimes the manager says no to getting anything to customers

Not read anything about this.
And literally no one in RL mentioned or seems remotely concerned

I work in food retail. We’re going through hell as the refrigeration packs outside cannot cope with sustained 30 degree heat.

Wonder what they do in Australia?

Better quality chillers and freezers.

im sure the one of cost of getting better quality cabinets will outweigh the losses of food that many supermarkets can’t sell especially with short dated stuff like meat, ready meals, milk in one summer

My local ASDA is lovely and cool inside but, yes, half of the fridges seem to be empty/out of action. By contrast, my local Morrisons is boiling hot as usual, but all of their fridges have doors. So I've no idea what's going on!

Is it not that the chiller and refrigeration cabinets are struggling to cope with the heat and therefore out of order ? It’s not that there are working shelves with nothing on them. That’s the situation in our local supermarkets, don’t recall seeing anything in the media .

Is it a quality issue or a specification issue? As I know that the makes they use seem to be similar all over the world…. I had to get ours upgraded as they were originally specced keep the house at 20 degrees when it was 34 degrees outside. But 34 degrees is not unusual now. I agree that open fridges and freezers are a bit silly though…it puts much more load on the compressor.

I think it’s a bigger climate change issue. I can well imagine that the buildings air con was specced to achieve a given internal temperature, and that chiller cabinets and freezers were specced to chill down from that. If higher outside temperatures mean that the interior of the store is warmer then the chiller will,have to work harder, and maybe do pack up. But that’s a system specification not quality of components or individual chillers issue as far as I can see :)

The fridges in my local M&S are all switched off this morning. Hardly any food other than dry stuff. I don't understand because the actual food hall is still very cold with full blast air conditioning.

The motors can’t cope. Plus would you be happy buying food which goes off before the date? Thought not.

it they had doors to the chillers it may reduce the chances of the chillers being emptied

Where do you fit in to all this op? Supermarket worker?

There's loads of media coverage. But every single story has a subheading like this;
"Shoppers were unable to buy essential items like meat and milk as fridges and freezers broke down in supermarkets across the UK". I can't find a single story claiming that it's people buying too much.

No it just pisses me off when the media think it’s down to people panic buying. Then customers think we are lazy.

Glad I’m out of retail. Plus the polyester uniforms cling to you in the heat

Where are these media reports of it being because people are buying more food?
Loads of headlines saying they are breaking down, so I don't see what your point is and why you seem oddly invested.

What “media”? Source?

Obviously would be happy buying food that is off.
Just making an observation!

Oops "wouldn't"

both my local M&S looked liked they’d been ransacked yesterday! I assumed it was due to the fridges not coping rather than panic buying. Staff confirmed it. I was very disappointed as I’d gone there to collect down 😂

I am on holiday in europe at the moment and there are empty freezers and notices on the doors, it isnt just in the UK.

I had no idea! I went to buy icecream yesterday and today different supermarkets and I thought the whole world had been there before me and bought the lot!

Just been to Asda all nicely stocked the ice cream and ice lollies section more or less empty but I’d expect that

I heard something about this on the radio this morning. Apparently - fridges/chillers work by removing warm air from inside the unit and expelling it out the back, so fridge pipes get warm. When the air outside is warmer than the air being expelled it cannot function. So hot weather can cause fridges to stop working. It’s to do with the second law of something

Apparently - fridges/chillers work by removing warm air from inside the unit and expelling it out the back, so fridge pipes get warm. When the air outside is warmer than the air being expelled it cannot function.

That makes sense.

As does the usual ice cream/lollies and burger freezers being empty but not the frozen veg or raw meat freezers. Which is down to people buying more of certain products and therefore why those freezers are empty. I've never been in a supermarket where ALL freezers are empty, whether they are Tesco, Adsa or Lidl.

Local supermarket the freezers have been out of action since last week, so not temperature related.

But when there's hot weather normally the ice cream section looks like the locusts have been there. The rest of the freezer stuff is well stocked, so it is definitely people buying up the ice cream not just broken freezers.