Case Studies

In Search of the Perfect Food Display Unit

By Teri Cettina

The charming lakeside town of Manistee, Mich., is known as the Victorian Port City, due to its quaint downtown and turn-of-the-century buildings. Nancy Goodwin operates her coffeehouse, Goody’s Juice & Java, out of one of these. The cozy hangout features a preserved tin ceiling, vintage hardwood floors and an expansive picture window that offers patrons a view of the city’s Main Street and the nearby Manistee River.

When she opened the shop in September 2003, Goodwin was concerned not about creating a nostalgic ambience – the setting did much of this for her – but about her display case.

The tourist destination of Manistee is a long drive from most major Michigan cities. As a result, many of Goodwin’s pastries and other food items have to be trucked in once a week from Grand Rapids – a two-hour haul. So when it came time to buy a case, Goodwin toyed with the idea of a vintage unit, but logistics proved more compelling than style. “If I bought a used food case and it had broken down, I couldn’t afford to pay someone to drive in and fix it,” she says. So even though a new case was expensive and a stylistic departure, Goodwin and her husband decided it would be a better fit for them. Goodwin’s 52-inch Federal case cost around $9,000. And her concerns about décor have since melted away. “We hardly notice the case,” she says, “we’re so focused on the food.”

Full article text available upon request.

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