CHARLOTTE — For some lucky North Carolina employees, going to work means getting out of the heat and walking into giant freezers.

Kyle Biddy, a chef at Reid's Fine Foods, makes dozens of trips into the icebox every day.

"Take off your hat, loosen up your coat, stand in here for a minute," said Biddy.

Reid's freezer is about three degrees.

"Sometimes I find my guys standing in here searching for things a little longer than they probably should," said Biddy.

Across town at Zippy Ice, owner Howard Mackie said everyone he meets tells him the same thing. An ice distributor gets to be pretty popular on hot days. Mackie's business jumps 30 percent to 40 percent on scorchers such as the recent heat wave.

"As much ice as we sell we could sell a lot of rides on the back of the truck too,” said Mackie.

Zippy Ice said its business picks up on hot days primarily because restaurants use much more ice than they normally do, since patrons typically order more drinks on hot days. That means ice distributors have to make mid-day emergency runs to keep the freezers stocked.