There's a econtalk or maybe a planet money that goes into detail on this: the cold chain is super important in food safety, especially for stuff like milk. You

There's a econtalk or maybe a planet money that goes into detail on this: the cold chain is super important in food safety, especially for stuff like milk. You want to be able to move from refrigerated milk truck to grocery store food fridge rapidly, so you put the milk near the loading dock. And of course, you keep the loading dock as far away from customers as possible so they're not inconvenienced. Moving the cold chain closer to checkout involves additional expenses, so it works more for higher margin products, and ones a bit more forgiving if there's a thaw, like Coke, Monster energy drinks, and canned coffee from Starbucks. So the question becomes: would you pay 50 cents more for milk from a fridge at checkout, when you can get the same thing at the back? EDIT: it was the host of econtalk, appearing on NPR Planet money:https://www.npr.org/2014/08/01/337034378/everyone-goes-to-the-store-to-get-milk-so-whys-it-way-in-the-back https://www.npr.org/2014/08/01/337034378/everyone-goes-to-th...