A multi-scale approach is presented to investigate the characteristics of fluid flow and heat transfer of vertical open refrigerated display cabinet (VORDC) coupled with heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system in supermarket. It includes three different scale models: supermarket-scale, cabinet-scale and shelf-scale. The results of temperature, velocity and relative humidity from these three length scale models are compared, and demonstrate that the deviations of temperature and relative humidity at return air grille are 13.46% and 0.20% with the supermarket-scale and cabinet-scale models, respectively. The average deviations of temperature and velocity for the second shelf are 1.3 degrees C and 0.084 m s(-1) among the three scale models, respectively. The temperature and velocity fields are both in a good agreement. It means that this multi-scale method can predict the temperature and velocity distribution from the supermarket-scale to the shelf-scale correctly. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.