There’s a display table at the front of my local Trader Joe’s where they promote freshly-made sandwiches, along with cheese spreads and other items. Many of the same products are available elsewhere in the store, but they’re always in a refrigerated case. I had always wondered why the cheese and sandwiches didn’t spoil, and figured the store just screwed up — or maybe the products sold so quickly that they stayed cold during their brief exile from the cooler.

Well, after looking more closely at one of the cheese packages, it appears that those products aren’t perishable after all. The package said something like “Refrigerate after opening”, or maybe even “No refrigeration necessary”. But how many customers would actually look at the product so closely? I bet a lot of people subconsciously avoid this type of item because something doesn’t feel right about it. The product should be in a refrigerated case, but it’s not.

So, when a store wants to use a non-refrigerated display to promote items that shoppers would normally consider perishable, the best approach is to tell people that the items don’t need to be refrigerated. Something like “Low-fat cheese spread — no refrigeration necessary” would do the trick. By clearly addressing the most likely concern that shoppers would have about the product, this extra bit of text should help shoppers feel more confident, and eliminate the silent objection that may have gotten in the way of their purchases in the past.