HAVE FREAKING DOORS!
I guess doors are too much to ask from Mr. Big Box Store.
I was headed over to the King Soopers (a grocery store chain in Colorado) last night with a major case of an Oreo attack. When I got there, I couldn’t believe my eyes: this grocery store has no doors! It just pumps AC all day with this gaping hole in the front of the store. According to my Oreo attack comrade and Colorado native Craig, they do the same thing in the winter and have heat pouring out of the store’s orifice, spewing hot air twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. They never close, and neither does this wasteful cavity. It’s kinda like Rush Limbaugh’s mouth.
Is it too much to ask to have freaking DOORS when the average heating bill is supposed to break $500 dollars this winter? They’re making it a crime in to do this in NYC:
The crazy thing is, that this is dealing with stores that have doors but opt to keep them open in the hot summer months to draw customers into their AC. King Soopers, however, didn’t even have doors in their blueprints. I can see that conversation in my head:
Architect: You know you really don’t need doors and it’ll save X dollars in door costs. Doors are getting very expensive, because the magic that makes them open automatically has to come from never never land which is, like, really far away.
King Sooper Person-in-charge: Wont that be an insulation problem?
Architect: Dude, I’m an architect.
King Sooper Person-in-charge: Sorry, you’re the expert. I’m sorry I ever doubted you. In that case, do we need walls?
I jest, of course, but I’m sure there was a conversation of the pros and cons to build this behemoth of a grocery store and some dude in some office weighed the lists of door pros and door cons and the pros lost. Unfreakin’ believable.
Enjoy your $120 a barrel oil King Soopers and enjoy one less customer.
(I did buy the Oreo’s though, they’re like crack.)
Is there any reasoning to NOT having doors? I’m sure this is and I would love to know what it is. Can anyone inform me?
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August 21st, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Hey, GreenestDude, glad you’re enjoying Colorado. And that you got to see one of the most efficient store designs around.
I know it’s hard to believe that a wide-open door is actually energy efficient, but it’s what’s behind the scenes that makes this a good choice for King Soopers.
All stores will have their doors open at some time (and in your photo you can see customers that would be causing these doors to be open.) So why not design a system that handles the situation more efficiently? By constructing a tight building and placing an air curtain at the opening, one can have an inviting, energy-efficient entrance. Only a revolving door is more efficient, but not nearly as convenient.
The air that you feel at the entrance is “waste” air that would be normally vented from other buildings through roof vents or other “leaky” elements in the building. So although the perception is that this can’t be efficient, it really is.
These stores also have minimal or no windows and other features (heat reclaim from refrigeration systems, higher-efficiency lighting and controls, recirculation of refrigerated case cooling air) to reduce heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.
If you would like to hear more about our stores or still have questions about how they work, please get back to me via e-mail or call 303-778-3063.
August 21st, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Wow, I got totally pwned on that one! Thanks for the info. I had a feeling there was a reason behind the madness but it just seemed too crazy to me.
So what you are saying is that this system is more efficient than say, two sets of automatic doors with (forgive my lack of technical knowledge) sort of an air pocket in between them, like you see in most Wal Marts and grocery stores?