Point-of-sale chilled product housing

A method of selling chilled food items comprising:

• locating an insulated vessel in a retail location,
• chilling a plurality of removable panels, each of which contains a material that is liquid at room temperature and has a freezing point of about 32 degrees Fahrenheit or colder until the liquid freezes,
• placing the chilled panels in the insulated vessel in a pattern to form vertical walls around at least one interior chamber in the vessel,
• loading containers of food items to be sold into the interior chamber,
• keeping the containers of food items cold by proximity to the panels for an extended period of time so that they are available to customers in the retail location, and
• permitting customers to remove containers of food items from the vessel and pay for them,
• wherein the vessel is quadrilateral and placing the chilled panels in the insulated vessel includes placing two panels on opposed vessel ends, two panels each on opposed vessel sides and one panel extending between the vessel sides spaced from each vessel end and interfitting the panel extending between the vessel sides with the panels on each opposed vessel side.

A method of storing chilled food items comprising:

• chilling a plurality of removable panels in a freezer location, each of the panels containing a material that is liquid at room temperature and has a freezing point of about 32 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, until the liquid freezes,
• placing the chilled panels in an insulated vessel separate from the freezer location in a pattern to form vertical walls about at least one interior camber in the vessel,
• loading containers of food items into the interior chamber,
• keeping the containers of food items cold by proximity to the panels for a period of time desired for storage,
• removing selected containers of food items from the vessel, and
• replacing a thawed panel with a frozen panel without disturbing the remaining containers of food items.