Door count is set by two limits
Stock limit: you need enough cold units on display to cover sales between restocks, plus a cushion for warm stock still cooling at the back.
Range limit: you need enough facings to show the products you want to sell. A shop with a wide range may need more doors for facings than for stock. Plan for both, then take the larger answer.
Step 1: daily sales from footfall
If you have sales records, use your busiest normal summer day. If not, estimate: units per day = footfall × share of customers who buy a cold drink × average units per buyer. The share and units are assumptions you should check by counting for a few days; they vary hugely between a highway dhaba, a college canteen and a pharmacy.
Worked example
Assumptions: 600 visitors on a peak summer day; 20% buy a cold drink; 1.3 units per buyer; restock twice a day; 30% cushion for warm stock; 24 SKUs at 1.5 facings each; one door of the cooler in our bottle-count guide holds 210 bottles of 600 ml across 5 shelves of 7 facings.
| Step | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Daily units | 600 × 0.20 × 1.3 | 156 units |
| Units between restocks | 156 ÷ 2 | 78 units |
| Cold units to hold | 78 × 1.3 | about 101 units |
| Doors for stock | 101 ÷ 210 per door | 0.5, so 1 door |
| Facings needed | 24 × 1.5 | 36 facings |
| Doors for range | 36 ÷ 35 facings per door | 1.03, so 2 doors or trim the range |
Reading the result
Stock alone fits in one door. Range is the binding limit: 36 facings is just over one door's 35. Either drop a slow line to one facing and stay with one door, or add a second door and use the spare space to hold more cold stock for summer peaks. Many shops find the second door pays for itself in the hottest months because restocking once a day becomes possible.
Do not forget pull-down
A cooler's holding capacity is not its cooling throughput. Bottles loaded at a summer shop temperature can take hours, not minutes, to reach drinking temperature. If you restock 100 warm bottles at once, the front rows must already be cold to carry sales until the new ones cool. That is the reason for the cushion in the example. Ask the supplier how the model performs pulling down a full load from your shop temperature.
Placement matters as much as count
- Put the coolers where shoppers pass, but out of direct sun through the shutter.
- Leave the clearance the manual requires for the condenser, especially in non-AC shops.
- Two single-door units give resilience and flexibility in layout; one double-door unit can use floor space more efficiently. Choose by your space and risk.
- Keep a socket per unit and plan for a stabiliser where voltage is poor.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there a rule for doors per hundred customers?
- No reliable one. The share of customers who buy cold drinks and how much they buy vary too much between shop types. Use your own sales or count buyers for a few days, then apply the method above.
- Should I restock more often instead of adding a door?
- If staff time allows, yes; more frequent, smaller restocks keep cold stock at the front and need less cushion. The limit is pull-down: warm stock must have time to cool before the cold stock in front of it runs out.
- Does a separate cooler for dairy or ice cream change the count?
- Yes. Products that need different temperatures, such as milk and curd versus soft drinks, or frozen desserts, cannot share a door without one of them being at the wrong temperature. Plan each temperature band with its own stock and range limits, then add the doors together.
- How do I measure footfall without a counter?
- Count people entering for fixed periods, for example 15 minutes in each busy and quiet hour, over several days, and scale up. At the same time, count how many leave with a cold drink. Two or three days of counting gives much better planning numbers than a guess.
