Close the Door!

The UK has just recorded its coldest Novenmber day breaking all records, plus this is only the start of winter. Take a walk down the High Street and everyone is wrapped up in scarfs, gloves and winter clothes. They then enter stores and it starts to look like a striptease act. While temperatures outside have got as low as minus 17 centigrade, once the consumer enters the shop the temperature rises to 25 degrees, the same temperature as the tropics, plus the store door is left open. Hence a lobby group called ‘Close the Door’,who are trying to lobby retailers to be more sustainable in their approach. They claim that retailers can reduce their hating bill by 54% by simply closing the door. According to the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers in the UK the ideal temperature for a small shop or department store should be betwen 19 and 21 degrees centigrade. Supermarkets rely on a different temperature regime as food temperatures very around the store. Sustainability will mean that the heat curtain so common in retailing in cold climates may become a thing of the past in the not too distant future.