"Saving money" isn't going to be in the vocabulary of someone who wants a walk in cooler.

First of all, you have to have the space for it, and that means the remote compressor and the walk in portion. That means a pretty big house to begin with. Not just your average 5000 square foot McMansion.

Second of all, the up front costs will pale in comparison with running a walk in over time, and the up front costs are not inconsiderable.

Thirdly, you need to be OK with zero warranty and potentially scrambling around to find service. Most restaurant/industrial HVAC guys aren't insured for homeowner repairs and won't do them.

Fourthly, we've gone polar opposite from the conspicuous consumption of the real estate boom, so unless you are really in that ultra large home with the ultra high income to match, expect to catch some heat for choosing such an over the top choice. People in that category do NOT sweat the details of how their food stays fresh and just leave that to their staff to decide how to best handle the issue.

It's not so crazy. We have a pantry that we would like to cool and dehumidify because we live in a hot and humid climate and do not usually air condition the whole house. It might actually save money to have a well insulated pantry that is cooled as opposed to cooling the house. A cool pantry is not the same as a refrigerator, however. They make "mini-split" cooling systems for several thousand dollars that would be much cheaper than a SZ. I am sure some people have done it.

There was a kitchen shown on Gardenweb that was featured on Atticmag.

I didn't have a walk-in cooler but it had a reach-through cooler with glass doors that opened into the pantry and glass doors that opened into the kitchen. It was large, but you weren't cooling floor space and it was contained by gasketed doors on each side, at least. I am sure that it cost quite a lot (The range in the kitchen was one of those $20K ones and the custom hood probably was too).

There have been two places near me that converted their walk-in coolers that fed out the front (stores, I mean) with units that are enclosed front and back. These were newish units they were replacing so the idea that the upfront cost of replacing a new unit with a different new unit indicates to me that the utility bills must have been so astronomical that this made sense.

Commercial coolers do not care about energy and normally have rather thin insulation.

The loads form the constant opening and closing probably swamp heat gain through the insulation.

A cooler with doors on two sides is also going to have higher losses.
No insulated glass unit is going to stack up against 4-5 inches of foam insulation.

If you want a walkin cooler, why not think about a root cellar? It's the opposite of a walk in freezer, in that it's low tech and ecologically sound. But it would be a way to keep fresh fruits and veggies around a bit longer.

We are all doing multi-room kitchens? Not me. I have one room of fixed size. Adding a hutch with fridge drawers in my breakfast room was as spread out as I was going to get.

I do have a friend who built a store and restaurant. He told me one day several years ago about the cost of installing and operating those coolers. It was HUGE.

My neighbors/friend installed a cooled pantry which is basically a large fridge. It was build using a custom case of steel which was then insulated and eventually drywalled on the front with a glass door and a small "hatch" (I guess you'd call it, it is about 2ftx2ft) for easy access to the most used items (milk, OJ, beers) which sit in a small glass box with small holes in it beside the door. The cooling system uses 4 compressors located on the side of the garage next to the kitchen. It basically sounds like an air conditioner when it is on. During the winter there is a fan with a filter that brings in cold air when it is below 35 degrees outside to save energy costs. The floor of the unit is tile with a small drain in case there is extra condensation in the fridge during the warm months.

If I had to guess I would say it is about 5 feet deep 6 feet wide and about 6 and a half feet tall. It does stay cold, but I can't imagine it is very energy efficient. It does do a nice job keeping my friends hunting catches dry and cold. And my friends wife does use the shelving (which looks commercial) for her cooled baked goods.

I wouldn't want it, but it seems to fit their purposes. I don't think I would use it nearly as much. It is a very tailor made type product that not many people have the space for or actually use.