If you’re trying to stealthily swipe a midnight snack from the refrigerator, you’re in luck — the built-in light makes it easy to see what you’re doing. If your treat of choice is frozen, however, you’ll probably have to whip out your smartphone flashlight or go by feel alone. That’s because most freezers lack their own light source. It's a pretty classic example of the cost-benefit principle, which basically means that the cost of something shouldn’t be more than its benefit to consumers. Since consumers use the light in their refrigerator quite often, manufacturers consider it a valuable feature and can justify the cost of installing those lights much more easily than they can with freezer lights. As for why consumers don’t value freezer lights very highly, the most popular explanation is that we simply don’t open our freezer as often as we do our refrigerator. When we do open our freezer, we may be less likely to stand there for a few minutes surveying the options.
