Grab-and-go has moved well beyond the lunchtime sandwich. And it’s still growing: food and drink market analysts Lumina Intelligence forecast the UK food-to-go market will reach £24.9 billion in 2026, up 3.4% on 2025 and ahead of the 2.4% growth across the wider eating-out market.

But that growth isn’t coming from new outlets. Lumina says customers are spending more per visit, with quality, health and premium choices increasingly important. For cafés, convenience stores and forecourts, that means making more of the space you already have, and your grab and go multideck sits right at the heart of it.

Is This You?

• ✓ You sell sandwiches, salads and drinks to customers in a hurry
• ✓ Your display looks great at lunch but tired by 3pm
• ✓ Your open multideck sits near the door or a sunny window
• ✓ Running costs have you wondering whether glass doors would help
• ✓ Premium lines are on your list, but your display doesn’t do them justice
• ✓ Budget’s tight, but you need more chilled display space

It’s Not Just About Lunch Any More

The meal deal isn’t going anywhere, but grab-and-go now stretches across the whole day. A well-stocked multideck can move from breakfast pots and juices in the morning to sandwiches, salads and drinks at lunch, then snacks and desserts in the afternoon.

So your display needs to work just as hard at 9am as it does at 1pm.

Put the Product Where Customers Can See It

Good grab-and-go takes very little effort from the customer. Products should be easy to find, compare and pick up without waiting for staff.

That’s why multidecks are such a familiar sight in cafés, convenience stores, forecourts, hospitals, universities and workplace canteens. Tiered shelving packs plenty of chilled display into a small footprint, and good lighting lets the food do the selling.

That matters, because plenty of purchases aren’t planned. Separate research into forecourts found that around a third of food-to-go purchases there are made on impulse, with strong front-of-store placement, clear meal deals and compelling value cues key to winning them.

In practice, that means keeping meal deal items together, putting your best sellers at eye level and making prices easy to read at a glance. Get that right, and your fridge becomes part of the sales pitch, not just somewhere cold to keep stock.

Open Front or Glass Doors?

An open-front multideck puts nothing between the customer and the product: see it, reach for it, take it. For a fast-moving lunchtime trade, that simplicity counts.

Glass doors, whether hinged or sliding, add a small extra step, but they keep more cold air inside the cabinet instead of spilling into the room. Over a long trading day, that can help keep running costs down.

There’s no single right answer. On a very busy site, unrestricted access may come first. Elsewhere, the savings from doors may be worth the extra step. Think about how your customers actually shop before you decide.

How Does an Open Multideck Stay Cold Without Doors?

It’s the question we’re asked most about multidecks. The answer is a curtain of cold air flowing down across the front of the cabinet, which holds the chilled air in while customers reach straight through it.

That’s why loading matters. Stock piled past the load line breaks the air curtain, and the food starts to warm up. It’s an easy mistake to make, and an easy one to fix.

Will It Keep Your Food Cold Enough?

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, chilled food must by law be kept at 8°C or below, and across the UK the recommendation is to keep display units at 5°C or below. Checking your display temperatures should be part of your daily opening checks.

Where the cabinet stands makes a big difference. Open multidecks are the most affected by their surroundings: near an entrance, in a sunny window or in a warm, busy shop, a cabinet can struggle to hold its temperature. A cabinet’s climate class tells you the room conditions it’s designed to work in, and our climate class guide explains what to look for.

It’s also worth remembering that a plug-in multideck releases heat into the room as it works, which is worth factoring in for a small or already warm space.

Size, Shelving and Running Costs

Bigger isn’t automatically better. A huge display with half-empty shelves rarely looks appealing, and you’ll be paying to cool space you don’t need.

A slimline multideck gives useful display space where depth is tight. Low-height models keep sightlines open across a counter or shop floor, while taller units make the most of vertical space. Adjustable shelves help when your range changes through the day, as bottles, sandwich packs and salad bowls don’t all need the same height.

Display refrigeration runs for long hours every day, so what a cabinet costs to run deserves as much thought as what it costs to buy. On open-front models, night blinds help hold the cold air in after you close, while suitable stock stays in place.

Could Graded Be the Smarter Buy?

Expanding your grab-and-go offer doesn’t have to mean buying brand-new refrigeration.

Graded multidecks can offer significant savings, particularly when the reason for grading is cosmetic damage, damaged packaging, a cancelled order or another issue that doesn’t stop the cabinet doing its job. That can put a larger or better-specified multideck within a budget that might otherwise only stretch to a smaller new one.

The important thing is knowing exactly what you’re buying. At Anglia Catering Equipment, we describe the condition of our graded equipment clearly, so you can see why it’s been graded and decide whether it’s the right value for your business. Graded stock changes from time to time, so it’s always worth checking what’s in.

Making the Most of Your Space

The food-to-go customer is changing. Quality is now the most important factor in what they buy, 78% describe themselves as quality-driven, and they’re spending more each visit – an average of £12.98, up 8.5% year on year.

That changes the job your multideck does. Premium salads, fresh pots and better-quality sandwiches need to look the part, so clean glass, good lighting and a well-stocked, well-ordered display really matter. Your multideck isn’t just keeping food cold. It’s your shop window.

So the opportunity isn’t necessarily more floor space. It’s giving customers who are ready to spend more a display that makes them want to.

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