Asda has shelved plans to roll out the chiller cabinets with doors trialled at its latest eco-store in Liverpool, after shoppers claimed they made it difficult to reach certain products.

The C02-powered refrigerators were launched when Asda's Bootle branch opened last October and the retailer had planned to roll them out to all new and refurbished stores.

However, shoppers claimed that when they wanted to choose variable-priced or weighted items, such as cheese, the doors got in the way.

"Customers don't seem to mind too much if they need a standard item. So if you want to buy Flora, you put your hand in and pick up a tub," said Asda head of sustainability Julian Walker-Palin. "But if there is a product that has a variable weight or price, customers have more concern. For example, if they want a block of Red Leicester cheese for £1, they have to hold open the door, put their hand in it and rummage around until they find the piece they want."

Asda would continue to evaluate the fridges and review feedback with a view to a future roll-out, he said.

Several features from the Bootle branch had proved successful enough to be rolled out now, however, said Walker-Palin, citing sun pipes that reflect daylight into the store, lower-energy bakery ovens and atriums to minimise temperature differences and wind from outside.

The £27m store saves 42 tonnes of CO2 and 349,000 kWh of electricity a year.

Topics