Store Layout & Refrigeration Placement: How NORFA Supermarket Uses FREOR NDL Solutions

Entry Zone: Where the Shopping Journey Begins

The first area in the store follows a well-established retail principle: fruits and vegetables are placed at the entrance.

This zone is not only about product visibility but also about customers’ behavior. Fresh produce creates a visually open environment that naturally slows customers’ movement, allowing them to browse through the produce range. It transitions customers from direct entry into a more exploratory shopping mode.

In cases where non-food products are positioned at the entrance instead, the fruit and vegetable section usually still remains the first refrigerated food category customers encounter. This ensures that the transition from general merchandise to fresh food remains consistent and intuitive.

NORFA supermarkets take a hybrid approach, combining both strategies. A smaller selection of seasonal non-food products is placed at the front, while fruits and vegetables still form one of the first key sections customers enter. This balance supports both immediate product visibility and a natural progression into fresh food areas.

This principle is supported through the use of NDL IDA QB H2 promotional self-service counters, which help define and structure the entry experience. The counter’s high-transparent design provides strong product visibility while maintaining clear sightlines into the rest of the store, ensuring the entrance zone feels open rather than visually obstructed.

Perimeter Structure: Multidecks as Continuous Retail Surfaces

After the entry zone, the store layout naturally extends into movement along the store walls, where refrigeration equipment begins to define the primary structure of customer flow and product exposure.

In NORFA, this role is performed by NDL JUPITER GD and NDL JUPITER ROLL-IN GD multideck units, applied in different functional contexts across the store.

Following standard supermarket planning, perimeter areas are typically used for continuous multideck refrigeration. This approach frees up the central floor area while creating uninterrupted product presentations along the store edges.

Island Configurations: Extending Refrigeration into the Sales Floor

In modern layouts such as NORFA, the perimeter principle is extended beyond the store walls. In addition to wall installations, NDL JUPITER multidecks are also arranged in island configurations within the sales floor, creating large chilled zones that function as secondary customer flow points.

These island layouts allow for wider assortments of a single product category to be displayed in a more accessible and structured way. In some supermarket designs, semi vertical units are used to create smaller, defined sections in the middle of the sales floor. However, NORFA achieves a similar effect through the use of NDL JUPITER multideck islands, which provide both strong product visibility and a cohesive chilled environment while maintaining clear circulation paths throughout the store.

With the islands in the middle of the store, customer movement is not limited to the store walls. Instead, the store forms a dual structure: continuous movement along the perimeter, combined with island destinations in the central supermarket area. The walls guide the main flow, while the islands distribute movement across the store and create additional points of engagement.

Service Areas: Connecting Preparation and Customer Service

Serve-overs, such as NDL VEGA SPACE QB HG, are positioned based on operational logic rather than on pure customer flow.

These serve-over counters are typically placed near preparation or kitchen areas, where staff interaction is required. They act as the interface between back-of-house production and front-of-house retail, reinforcing the perception of freshness and clearly communicating that products are prepared in-house.

Increasingly, traditional serve-over counters are being replaced by self-service counters such as NDL VEGA SPACE QB LG, NDL VEGA SPACE QB H1, and NDL VEGA SPACE QB H2. These units allow products that would normally be served by staff to be prepacked and made immediately available to customers, responding to the growing demand for faster, more convenient shopping.

In the NORFA supermarket, the placement of NDL VEGA SPACE QB HG and LG serve-over counters and NDL VEGA SPACE QB HDV heated-showcase all connected into a continuous line supports efficient staff operations while also creating clearly defined zones of direct customer interaction within the overall store layout. This zone also features NDL JUPITER multidecks behind the counters to provide additional product storage for staff.

Transition Points: Guiding Movement Between Zones

Between the main structural zones, smaller refrigeration units, such as NDL IDA QB range promotional self-service counters, are used to influence movement patterns. Different models, such as NDL IDA COMPACT QB or NDL IDA H1, create flexible merchandising points that adapt to varying conditions and promotional needs.

NORFA specifically chose the NDL IDA QB H2 models, placed in transition areas where circulation paths cross or shift direction. Rather than defining space, they modify it – encouraging linear movement, increasing category exposure, and breaking sideways flow patterns.

Central Display: Highlighting Premium Categories

Not every refrigerated display in a supermarket is designed to guide movement. Some are intended to draw attention to specific product categories.

In the NORFA store, NDL EXO is positioned in the center of the sales floor as a dedicated display for cakes and desserts. Its distinctive design sets it apart from the surrounding refrigeration equipment, creating a visual central point that naturally attracts customers.