Aceman pretty much sums up the same experience I had in building new homes from 2001 to 2007 in Northern VA. As a builder, the customer got the Code minimum unless they paid extra (this required a knowledgeable buyer or good salesman). So, we had lots of complaints from uneducated homeowners who put their fridge in the garage and plugged it into the GFI, it tripped, and they lost their contents. (Before you bash the "cheap builder" for going Code minimum, when you build 500 plus units per year, all of the small "extras" add up.)
Our electricians typically wired the house using what they referred to as the "Main GFI". In this setup, the Main GFI reset was typically in the garage (although sometimes in the basement mechanical room) with a home run to the panel. Then, the exterior outlets at the front and rear door, deck location, and even the post light where run off this GFI. Often, during heavy rains, the exterior outlets and sometimes the post light would trip the circuit and take out the fridge whereas the fridge had been running fine until then.
The best solution is to have a home run 20A outlet for the fridge. If you put this outlet in the garage or unfinished area (where GFI protection would normally be required) our inspectors required us to install a single outlet type trim (not a duplex outlet) on this dedicated outlet.
If your "main GFI" is in the garage and wire as described, you may be able to tap an outlet ahead of the GFI for the fridge, and keep the GFI for everything downstream.
As was posted also, some devices have issues being on GFI's. I chased this problem with a garage door opener tha would not work, yet the outlet checked fine.
