Al,
Current wisdom describes the refrigerator's effect as 'causing bread
to go stale.' Not sure how they are measuring this effect. Could be
the cold temps cause the fats in the bread to solidify?
In any case, it does NOT ensure that the bread is fresh/soft as a
sandwich bread although it DOES retard mold growth.
We keep all our bread on the counter in a long, plastic loaf-sized
container until it's gone, only a day or two, or the plastic bag it
comes in (Great Harvest's wonderful loaves included). The freezer
holds everything else for as long as needed.
HTH
Nita