1.1 History
In the first half of the 20th century, retailers operated from small premises, serving only their local community. Few products were displayed as they are today, with many selected by an assistant from behind the counter. Most food was not pre-packaged but was instead measured and wrapped to the customers’ requirements by the shopkeeper. Only fresh foods that could be grown locally were available; these had to be purchased and used on a daily basis. Shopping was a daily process, with meat being bought from the butcher and milk delivered every morning.
After the Second World War there was a greater level of consumer choice, especially with regard to food. Retail trends from the US were becoming popular in Europe, particularly the trend for self-service. Customers wanted to see and choose from an ever-growing range of foods. Helped by the advent of the car, increased road networks and domestic refrigeration, larger stores (supermarkets) developed to serve this thirst for choice. The increasing penetration of domestic refrigerators into the home, in particular, extended the periods between shopping trips. This allowed larger, less regular shopping to be carried out, often weekly or fortnightly. For example, in 1970, over 40% of the UK population did not have a fridge, whereas by 1980 almost all households owned a domestic refrigerator (DECADE, 1997). Combined with changes to the family structure, where more women went out to work and mobility of labour was simpler, householders began to shop less regularly. This resulted in a move from shopping in small outlets to ‘one stop shopping’ in larger supermarkets. Less regular shopping was also driven by the demise of daily deliveries after the Second World War, which led to consumers needing to store food, and an increase in domestic refrigeration sales. For example, until 1980 doorstep milk delivery was common. However, by 2000 doorstep milk delivery had almost disappeared as consumers had refrigerators, and milk that was cheaper than the doorstep delivery could be bought in the supermarket.
After the Second World War there was also a huge expansion in home building. Houses built up until the 1960s commonly had larders to keep food chilled. However, after the Parker Morris report of 1961 there was a greater emphasis placed upon living and circulation space, and larders were often not included in homes. Homes were also better heated from around this time, and so there was less opportunity to store food without some form of refrigeration. Research shows that in 1970 internal household temperatures in the UK had a mean of 12°C, whereas by 2004 the mean had risen to 18°C (Fawcett, 2005).
The advent of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) introduced in the 1930s allowed the expansion of refrigeration within retail. This was because CFCs were considered much safer than the previous natural refrigerants (ammonia, carbon dioxide, propane and sulphur dioxide) and therefore more suited to a retail environment. R502, R22 and R12 were the common refrigerants used, until it was found that these refrigerants depleted the ozone layer. These refrigerants were replaced by intermediate HCFC (hydroclorfluorocarbons) and then ozone-friendly hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants (e.g. R134a and R404A). These refrigerants are now considered harmful to the environment due to their impact on global warming, called their global warming potential (GWP). These refrigerants can warm the globe thousands of times more than the same quantity of carbon dioxide (the main global warming gas). For this reason much work has recently been carried out on making sure these refrigerants do not escape from the refrigeration system. Some countries (such as Denmark) have placed a high tax on these refrigerants. Chapter 7 (Current and Future Carbon-saving Options for Retail Refrigeration) discusses these refrigerants in more detail.
The post-war period was also a period of great technological growth. Consumers began to own televisions, and the power of advertising grew. Frozen food sales grew in this period partially because of the power of media advertising. As supermarkets displayed more frozen food, the sales of freezers in the home also expanded. Frozen food manufacturers were probably key in this development, and were not just responsible for the greater uptake in frozen foods but also the technological infrastructure surrounding them (Cox et al., 1999). This in turn generated a cycle of improved technology and development of further frozen goods.
Birds Eye in particular was instrumental in developing di...
