You don’t know what you don’t know—and many foodservice businesses don’t know just how many mistakes they’re making by using metal shelving in their coolers and freezers. Guido’s Fresh Marketplace in Massachusetts didn’t realize just how much their metal shelving wash holding them back until they were introduced to Camshelving®.
Similar to Cambro, Guido’s was started by two brothers, Matt and Chris Masiero, with a small roadside produce stand. Today, 44 years later, Guido’s has grown into two large retail stores in Great Barrington and Pittsfield. During the remodeling of their Great Barrington location, they took the opportunity to improve the storage in their deli cooler, freezer and dairy cooler. Cameron Pease, Natural Foods Manager at Guido’s Great Barrington location, learned 3 ways Camshelving created better storage in their BOH.
1. Wasted Space is Eliminated
The traditional metal shelving doesn’t have the ability to share posts, and they are only able to stand so close to each other. Because of this, it’s very difficult to reach into the corners of this type of shelving. Most chefs either ignore the space because they can’t get to it or they shove items back there that are never seen again. Either way, you’re wasting space, money and food and no kitchen can afford to do that. With Camshelving, posts are shared and corners are open and Guido’s was immediately able to increase their storage space by 9 feet in the 4 corners of their freezer.
“Refrigeration, no matter how big you make it, it’s always an issue; you think you have enough and it’s always tighter than you imagine,” said Pease. “The corners, in the past, have just been dead space that you can’t really store any product in, so we’ve been able to utilize that space and maximize the square footage that we have.”
With their additional storage space, Guido’s is able to maximize their margin opportunities. They have more flexibility to buy a large quantity of product at a good price because they have the space to hold it.
2. Heavy Items are Stored Safely
When you’re used to heavy metal shelving, you may be surprised by the lightweight nature of Camshelving. Many foodservice professionals are skeptical about Camshelving until they see it in action.
“We sell a lot of kombucha in our store and it comes in a case pack of 12 and they’re heavy, they’re glass. We’ll have 8 across and stack them 3 high and have easily 30 cases on a shelf and it’s no problem; it carries the weight just fine,” said Pease. “Even though [Camshelving is] light and easy to move around and the shelves are easy to adjust, they hold weight well.”
3. Never Feel Stuck
After a while, metal shelving rusts and corrodes together. The metal shelving at Guido’s became difficult to break apart and moving the shelves was practically impossible.
“The issue we ran into, especially with some of our older shelving…over time, they rust and deteriorate and become an issue. When that does happen, it becomes hard to move shelves and adjust shelves and really utilize the space the way you need to; we struggled with that really up until the renovation. We couldn’t really adjust it; we couldn’t make it more functional,” said Pease.
"It's really convenient to adjust your shelf one or two clicks high, depending on what you need. You're not having a giant gap of space; you're utilizing every square inch.”
Guido’s was so happy with the Camshelving at their Great Barrington store that they decided to order it for their second store when their shelving needed to be replaced. Pease says their owner “felt like it was a no-brainer to use this product again.” Better storage is just a call away! Contact your local Cambro rep to get started today.
AUTHOR: ADRIANA DESIDERIO IS THE DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER AT CAMBRO.
