We’ve all got problems. Sometimes your problem is a massive roadblock in your life, or maybe it’s this little thing that quietly annoys you that you’ve learned to grudgingly put up with. But regardless of the size of your problem, it would be so great if someone would just fix it for you. Not just fix it, hyperfix it.
Whatever the problem, Alex Goldman — reporter, radio producer, and overconfident idiot — will get to the bottom of it (if there’s a bottom to be found. Results may vary). You may remember Alex as the former co-host of Reply All. When a 99PI listener couldn’t play the show on his Mazda car stereo, Alex and his super tech support team helped us track down the issue and create a special Mazda-friendly podcast feed, which we still publish to today.
Today, we’re playing a great story from Alex and his new show, Hyperfixed. Alex investigates why there’s no door in a place where there really should be a door. You’ll never shop for sour cream or shredded mozzarella the same way again.
There are new episodes of Hyperfixed every other week and bonus episodes on the off weeks. You can learn more about the show and sign up to be a premium member at hyperfixedpod.com.
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Re: cold case supermarket. The Fred Meyer’s stores in Oregon owned by Kroger have cold food except meat in cold cases
For quite a while – maybe in the 70#, after the “energy crisis”? – supermarkets used slatted plastic blankets on top of or in front of their cold cases, easy to reach through but keeping the cold in somewhat. After a while, though, that practice mostly ended in the big stores. It would be interesting to find out why. I think shortly after that there was a trend for the “tiki room,” thunder and lightning effect before refreshing rain showers in produce aisles. I imagine both trends came to an end due to some recalculated balance of efficiency and customer experience, and I’d think your grocery store consultant would know something about that.
Just listened to this episode, and that was something that I had always wondered/worried about myself. I try very hard to be as green as I can in a lot of little ways, including using my own reusable grocery bags for the last 14 years. I shop at the Piggly Wiggly in Oconomowoc, WI. And I’m kind of proud of this store, (despite having listened to other podcasts about how Piggly Wiggly was like the first big supermarket chain that put a lot of mom and pop stores out of business), because they did install, a couple of years ago, doors on every refrigerated case in the store. They are lightweight, and easy to open. I’m sure they’re not the greatest energy seal in the world, but they must help. They swing closed on their own. They’re all glass so you can see through them for what you want and don’t have to stand there with the door open looking at all the items trying to find what you need. I don’t find them inconvenient at all, and I have never heard another customer grumbling about them either. The store is full of extremely friendly and helpful employees as well, which is another reason I love shopping there. I bet if you called them they could point you in the right direction to talk to somebody who can tell you why they installed the doors.
Alex isn’t alone! This was raised with UK supermarkets in 2021:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59141894
For what it’s worth, my Safeway (in the Seattle suburbs) switched to refrigerated units with doors during the fall of 2024.
The handles keep getting broken off. But we do have doors.