On Refrigerators and Rage: Secrecy and Pacification in the Florida Restaurant Industry

Designed based on careful specifications and regulations, commercial refrigerators can be found in almost all restaurants across the United States. In this article I explore the multifaceted role of the commercial walk-in refrigerator as a space of mediation, secrecy, and pacification among restaurant industry workers in central Florida. I analyze two years of ethnographic research conducted from 2015 to 2017, and argue that the refrigerator acts as a liminal zone within the restaurant, which is used by management to subdue, pacify, and placate employees. To do so I draw on literature by design justice scholars on discriminatory design, to consider the ways in which the physical structure of American restaurant establishments perpetuate physical and emotional abuse of workers.