Walgreens replaced some fridge doors with screens, and some shoppers hate it

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/12/business/walgreens-freezer-screens/index.html

by tiahura • 4 years ago

133 207 4 years ago

edition.cnn.com

ec109685• 4 years ago

An article with a picture or two: https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/12/business/walgreens-freezer-sc...

nacs• 4 years ago

There's a video in that article too and it shows the stupidity of this design better..

So the transparent doors are now giant screens that show video ads all over them until you're in front of it.

When you're in front of it, it shows all the stuff it may have inside.

The "may" is where the really stupid part of this tech comes into play -- the screen shows what is available on a fully stocked shelf but when you open it to look inside, you can see there may be entire rows/products that aren't in stock (as seen in some customer videos in the article).

MBCook2• 4 years ago

THANK YOU.

I know some people like the “low distraction” of something like CNN’s lite mode but I hate it. Since there are no pictures I can’t see what they’re talking about, and that’s often important for the story (like here).

An ad blocker serves me just fine. Or I could turn on reader mode in my browser. Either way I still get the pictures. And they’re important to me.

Gigachad• 4 years ago

This version is much better. Should have been the OP link. Honestly it doesn’t look terrible from a UX perspective while it’s working. Pointless maybe, but it’s much better than some displays I have seen which don’t show all the products on screen at once.

the_snooze2• 4 years ago

The screens, which were developed by the startup Cooler Screens, use a system of motion sensors and cameras to display what's inside the doors — as well as product information, prices, deals and, most appealing to brands, paid advertisements. The tech provides stores with an additional revenue stream and a way to modernize the shopping experience.

I really hate the trend of putting "smart" screens and networked ads everywhere. Those startup bros can go jump off a cliff with their trash ideas.

Is it really so hard for retailers to stick to their core competencies and keep the transaction simple between us? I give them money, they give me goods/services. No need to get random middlemen involved.

shkkmo2• 4 years ago

If they were just adding screens that created a new means of interacting, that would be much less infuriating. What makes to so bad is the removal of the standard means of interaction, forcing everyone to use the screens whether they want to or not.

If I see these color door screens someplace, I am simple going to walk out and refuse to give that store any business. I refuse to support companies that are actively trying to make my life harder.

genocidicbunny2• 4 years ago

I don't walk out. I make a point to open the doors as hard as I can to get them jammed open or bend the hinges a bit. I've managed to break one or two so far.

kwhitefoot• 4 years ago

Make sure you tell every member of staff why you are walking out as you go.

chaorace• 4 years ago

This already is a core grocery competency. Did you think that the shelf placement of goods was chosen on a whim? Every shelf is a billboard where prime placement is auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Digital shelves are still stupid as all hell, but strictly from a KISS perspective, not a business one. The fact that this approach is so conceptually similar to existing SOP is probably why so many big grocers are getting swindled by this "innovation".

qbasic_forever2• 4 years ago

I've been at a store that used this technology and it was obnoxious. I really don't see how it will catch on or survive in the real world. The cost to run these screens 24/7 is enormous, especially in a world where energy costs are increasing. I doubt the ad revenue they make will come anywhere near recouping the costs after the honeymoon period and investor cash runs out.

the_snooze2• 4 years ago

It's not just the energy cost, but also the classic problem with IoT: is the company willing to stay on top of security patches and maintain the underlying software? If not, then it's only a matter of time before the software is either abandoned by the company rendering the screens useless, or compromised by hackers to display beheading videos all over the frozen foods aisle.

argella• 4 years ago

I’d go with porn, but your point is good.

kergonath2• 4 years ago

is the company willing to stay on top of security patches and maintain the underlying software?

It is much worse than that. Even companies willing to stay on top have trouble, can be affected by zero days, data leaks, and eventually stop supporting their hardware.

confident_inept• 4 years ago

Besides the annoying reality of not being able to see stock levels on product, when the screens go out (they do), you can't see what's in the cooler without opening the door.

A solution looking for a problem for sure. Maybe next they'll try one of those fancy transparent OLED panels and run ads on it!

bqmjjx0kac• 4 years ago

It certainly feels like a solution looking for a problem from the customer's perspective, but I wonder whether it is actually worthwhile from an advertising perspective. Perhaps the aggravation to customers costs less money than the revenue of new sales that wouldn't have happened without a giant display advertising to people on the other side of the store.

goatherders2• 4 years ago

Bingo. Companies of this size don't make these investments without a crystal clear business model. So while Joe consumer and most of HN decides this tech, I assure you that Walgreens has increased profits by a meaningful amount as a result of this investment.

userbinator3• 4 years ago

The tech provides stores with an additional revenue stream and a way to modernize the shopping experience.

Another example of why the word "modernize" has gained a very negative connotation for me.

The freezers have front-facing sensors used to anonymously track shoppers interacting with the platform

That is truly disturbing.

No doubt they're going to say these screens save cooling costs as part of promoting the green-globalist agenda...

Ekaros3• 4 years ago

Now I wonder will the cooling cost offset the life cycle cost of massive screens, or their electricity demand.

And just funny question, does the light go off inside those when door is closed?

samtho2• 4 years ago

I worked on a digital signage product back in the early 2010s that used OpenCV to track consumers using facial data. Those front facing sensors are cameras.

ryandrake• 4 years ago

If only you could make the door out of a cheap, hard-surface material, made from abundant raw materials, one that is also transparent, allowing you to see what is inside in real time, with pretty much zero power usage.

gruez• 4 years ago

with pretty much zero power usage.

AFAIK one of the claims is that the doors are a net energy savings, because you can use better, opaque insulation material rather than glass.

qbasic_forever2• 4 years ago

Far more energy and natural resources are going to be used to make those big screens than melting some sand for glass. Double wall glass doors with a good vacuum are incredibly effective insulators too. I doubt infrared radiation that goes through the glass is a big concern in the real world--unless your 7/11 is on Mercury.

_ea1k2• 4 years ago

If the goal is to save power, they should use chest freezers. They'd cost a tiny amount of space, but would save tons of power.

bootlooped• 4 years ago

I'm skeptical of that claim. The screen has to be really bright since stores are brightly lit themselves. Then you're putting something generating heat right up against the cavity you want to keep cold.

And then there's the accounts of people opening the doors to see what's inside because it's faster, or opening the doors only to find out the product they wanted is actually not there.

It just feels highly unlikely.

bsder• 4 years ago

I would be very skeptical because the display surface of the door always seems to be kind of toasty warm.

These doors are brightly lit; they are a lot of pixels; each door has the equivalent of a computer and a couple graphics cards in them. I believe that the doors even have active cooling fan vents on the sides (the doors are something like 3 inches thick!).

None of this says "power savings" to me.

tedunangst• 4 years ago

I've never even seen double paned glass doors. That seems like the obvious first step if you care about insulation. (Hmm, never say never, I guess I probably have, I'll have to check walgreens next time I stop in to see how insulated the old doors are.)

dsego• 4 years ago

In my country a lot of supermarkets still have open fridges with no doors.

samtho2• 4 years ago

I saw this company (Cooler Screens) pop up on a job board and I really really did not get it. What problem is being solved by replacing a clear panel with a tv screen only to have to track inventory using shoddy computer vision? Are they trying to save energy by preventing excess opens/closes? Customers already do not trust the “In Stock” status on stores’ websites, if they see an item out of stock on the screen, they will open it to see for themselves and there will be instances where the customer was right to look, further reinforcing this behavior.

This entire product seems like a thinly veiled effort to push more unwanted and intrusive ads. The technologist in me wants to believe there is more to this so I would be happy to be proven wrong, if anyone else has some insight.

sofixa3• 4 years ago

What problem is being solved by replacing a clear panel with a tv screen only to have to track inventory using shoddy computer vision?

Ads. They can make you look at an add at eye level on something you need to look at ( because you want to know if there's pizza or whatever there). It's a potentially pretty valuable ad for "super discount on X" or even regular crap.

userbinator3• 4 years ago

because you want to know if there's pizza or whatever there

I'll just open the door.

blihp• 4 years ago

You're not seeing the bigger picture...

Once most of the retailers have installed the product obscuring screens, another startup can produce an Augmented Reality 'x-ray' app that lets you see what's behind the screen by using your smartphone/smart glasses/whatever. They'll make money by selling ads, of course. Another ad-tech company will help a competing retailer place an ad in the AR app telling you about their store down the street that has installed these miraculous glass doors that let you just see their products. The store you're in will pay an analytics company big bucks to determine (in part, from a data feed from the AR app) their customer abandonment rate due to the screens. This data, combined with their competitor down the street taking customers, will allow a consultant to make bank recommending the original retailer install transparent doors. Ah, the virtuous cycle of tech.

barnbuilder2• 4 years ago

The "problem" being solved is that the manufacturers of the products sold at Walgreens (presumably) profit from their sale, which means there is room for Walgreens (and an accomplice) to shake them down for a fee and still leave everyone willing to continue the relationship.

This is already done through methods like selling prime shelf space (e.g. eye level) but this only works to a certain extent. Cooler Screens and Walgreens are pioneering a new system where video screens and advertisements are used to further manipulate shoppers towards certain products. Manufacturers who play the game are able to maintain their existing level of sales or even slightly grow them, minus the additional rent they are paying Walgreens and Cooler Screens, at the expense of manufacturers who don't play the game.

This could backfire if the video screens both increase store costs (for the reasons you described) and reduce store revenues from upset customers who no longer wish to shop in such a hostile environment. On the other hand, Walgreens is apparently betting that they have capacity to harass their customers without losing too many of them.

automatoney• 4 years ago

I view advertisements as the second hand smoke of the modern age. In theory ads are only placed by the consent of the space owner, but in practice they serve to pollute our environments in psychologically harmful ways, in the same way second hand smoke pollutes our physical environment.

Ekaros3• 4 years ago

I wonder when the dystopia of Pohl's comes true. The Space Merchants has some interesting things about marketing. Like beaming adds to screens of vehicles and in future straight to retinas...

int_19h• 4 years ago

Pohl already hit the jackpot with the Joymaker.

mbg721• 4 years ago

At least with smoking, the person who lit the cigarette intends to consume it. Here, even in the theoretical case, the ad serves no purpose to the space owner except to the extent that other people watch it.

SeanLuke• 4 years ago

Cooler Screens says 90% of consumers it has surveyed prefer its digital screens to traditional fridges

That was funny.

civilized3• 4 years ago

I wonder who did the surveys. I bet they were very... results-oriented.

Or maybe they just made it up. Startup founders have done worse right?

Ekaros3• 4 years ago

Reminds me of the Yes Minister clip and getting two different answers in survey.

Just have to ask bunch of questions leading to answer and then just publish that one...

Khoth• 4 years ago

I'd guess it's either a flat-out lie, or they described a hypothetical perfect version of the system and counted someone as positive if they thought there was even one slightly good thing about it.

userbinator3• 4 years ago

I suspect that the 90% of people who they were able to get a response from is going to be a highly biased sample.

ichugwindex5• 4 years ago

"We asked ourselves and we loved it"

xwdv2• 4 years ago

I don’t get why they would use opaque screens. There are transparent glass screens now, Disney uses them all the time. You could see inside and still display graphics on the glass. Fuck man…

sofixa3• 4 years ago

Maybe they're too expensive or too new ( the product was developed before they were mature and affordable).

xwdv2• 4 years ago

It’s a case of the right idea at the wrong time.

MBCook2• 4 years ago

Or, more skeptically, they make the ads too hard to read.

Talanes4• 4 years ago

Well, given that these are in Walgreens, probably to hide that half the shelves are empty.

civilized3• 4 years ago

Cooler Screens says 90% of consumers it has surveyed prefer its digital screens

To waking up in a bathtub of ice missing a kidney, maybe.

Animats• 4 years ago

"The items on display don't always match up with what's inside because products are out of stock."

That's been my experience. If not out of stock, perhaps shelved elsewhere.

Putting signage of any kind on fridge doors in retail is annoying. Just let us see the products. Aisle clutter in supermarkets has become worse, too. In some places it's so bad that it's not worth shopping in person any more.

lsllc• 4 years ago

I saw these for the first time at a Walgreens in Florida recently -- I hate these things -- I want to see what's inside! (and I'm not interested in having to watch an ad before it'll tell me where the milk is). I feel like it's out of some sort of dystopian Robocob/Snowcrash-esque story.

jimrandomh2• 4 years ago

The Walgreens down the street from me did this. For a month after they installed them, the whole wall of fridges was offline (warm inside and no product loaded), during which time I found other stores and stopped checking. Then when they were finally working, the user experience was pretty bad. In theory, what's supposed to happen is that when you're far away it shows you a giant-font indicator of what's inside, or an ad, and then when you get close, a motion sensor detects that you're there and replaces the display with a map of the contents, that's kind of like looking through glass.

The problem is that the motion sensor coverage area is too small, and the transition to map view is too slow, so you wind up standing in front of an opaque screen that's supposed to be showing you what's inside, but isn't. Then it's faster to open the door than it is to wait for it to change, so you wind up opening the door, searching for the product you wanted with the door open, and wasting a bunch of energy.

phinnaeus• 4 years ago

It's already wasting a bunch of energy by simply being there, displaying whatever.

danuker• 4 years ago

It could be that the fridges behind the screens are better insulated than transparent ones. But having to open them to see what's inside certainly makes it cost more.

chaostheory• 4 years ago

My experience is the same. It does eventually show you what’s inside, but it’s not faster than just opening the door. I think something like AR would make a better experience.

hef19898• 4 years ago

Or somethong transparent. I propse glass until we figured out transparent aluminium or force fields.

analog31• 4 years ago

It turns out that making a digital display work as well as human vision is a monumental technical challenge. For instance the makers of microscopes have only begun making research quality microscopes where you actually want to use the digital display instead of the eyepieces, for "difficult" specimens.

BbzzbB• 4 years ago

That and eye tracking to data mine shoppers' gazes for the benefit of marketing departments (and Cooler Screens) to optimize displays. Truly an "exciting" customer experience.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/walgr...

reustle• 4 years ago

I wonder if folks will start stickering these cameras in protest

Talanes4• 4 years ago

At least yours appears to be trying to do something. The Walgreens that have them around here just have the screen on a static display of drinks (about half of which are actually there when you open it.)

_ea1k2• 4 years ago

I wondered why people hated them so much as the description in the article seemed decent. It even seemed like it could work ok if the screen layout were efficient.

Thanks for clarifying that its not just a solution in search of a problem but a really horribly implemented solution.

Now I get it.

HWR_143• 4 years ago

Even if it worked technically, adding in person spying and ads isn't helpful. There is no problem getting solved at all.

winrid• 4 years ago

You're OK with a good implementation that tracks and stores your eye movements for data mining?

michaelt• 4 years ago

The company wants to engage more people with advertising [...]
Retailers are eager to add new experiences to their physical stores. But many consumers aren't eager to change their habits — and they certainly aren't used to watching freezer-display ads.
"People really appreciate their routines. They're not always seeking excitement," said Julio Sevilla

Has CNN introduced a parody section when I wasn't looking? Is this some sort of joke article, satirising corporate nonsense-speak and journalists blindly reprinting press releases?

This isn't a matter of shoppers being scared of "change" or disliking "excitement" - nobody is "excited" to "engage with advertising", they're just inconvenienced. This is walgreens making the shopping experience worse in the hopes of making more money.

How someone so unable to speak plainly could forge a career as a professional journalist I have no idea....

orlp• 4 years ago

The last thing I want in a grocery store is an "experience". I just want to buy my stuff and go home.

bko2• 4 years ago

Depends on how you define "experience". Do I want attentive cashiers that are efficient and friendly? How about clear standardized pricing to price compare? Conveniently placed workers that can direct me to the right location? Predictable product placements?

Whether you like it or not, grocery store is an experience. For instance there are considerably cheaper grocers that can fulfill many basic goods (C-Town, Dollar General, etc) but some people avoid because the "experience" is not as pleasant (lighting, color scheme, spacing, etc)

XorNot• 4 years ago

Online shopping during the pandemic has been pretty great for me. The biggest problem in Australia is that it's very clear the supermarket chains don't process seriously enough - i.e. random substitutions without notification are way to common.

But I miss absolutely nothing about going to a grocery store.

EDIT: in fact in general the pandemic has been pretty good at cutting the number of ads I have to see and hear daily since I've been away from high trafficked areas a lot. That sensory assault I do not miss at all.

happytiger• 4 years ago

Exactly. What consumer has a desire for a “retail media company?” Gross. Especially one that’s business model is to interrupt the retail experience to inject non-value added advertising?

eps• 4 years ago

Well, there's some merit to measuring one's shopping in terms of "experience".

Well-laid out spacious store, with good lighting and non-obtrusive background music is quantifiably better than a dirty, cramped corner store with a sus-looking shopkeeper and ethnic music blaring out of tin speakers.

But, clearly, being exposed to #more# ads is not something that adds to said experience positively.

journalizer• 4 years ago

Precious few “journalists” are journalists in any meaningful sense (I suppose we could say something similar of software “engineers,” but this is a dead horse here)

Call it fake news, propaganda, or the nice PR - but that’s what these “journalists” are. They’re not true journalists but serial killers, wearing the skin of the dying profession.

civilized3• 4 years ago

I kinda liked it tbh. This reporter told us the story straight, got a few pull quotes from relevant parties, and called it a day.

The ridiculousness of the story sells itself. It doesn't really need professional help.

gonehome• 4 years ago

“ How someone so unable to speak plainly could forge a career as a professional journalist I have no idea....”

Most journalists are in the ad business - imo this is why they hate Facebook so much, they’re competitors and ad supported news orgs mostly ship a crappier product.

gaze• 4 years ago

I know this will come off a bit spicy, but this is how all of CNN's articles are written, it's just that we're way more sensitive to wording that's sympathetic to advertising. This is how the media shapes language and ultimately shapes people to tolerate the way police treat black people, how the homeless are treated, and so on and so forth.

throwaway27727• 4 years ago

How someone so unable to speak plainly could forge a career as a professional journalist I have no idea....

Minimum word limits throughout college, for starters.

Groxx2• 4 years ago

Cooler Screens says 90% of consumers it has surveyed prefer its digital screens to traditional fridges...

So apparently they're wildly unable to gather a representative sample of people, or have structured their survey to mislead them to an extreme degree.

Sounds like a company to stay far away from.

dhosek3• 4 years ago

That 90% claim sounds like a bare-faced lie to me.

FounderBurr3• 4 years ago

Marketing wank.

Nothing screams failure like appearing on media lying about how everyone likes you so much.

hughrr• 4 years ago

Sounds like they surveyed 9 members of the marketing and MBA class team and one software person.

vba616• 4 years ago

Walgreens reportedly put millions into Theranos. Seems like at some level there must be a lot of pressure to be "innovative" and a lack of understanding how to do it.

ajsnigrutin• 4 years ago

Or fudged up the methodology... show them a fridge with a display, ask them "does this look exciting to you?" (without context), they say "yes", "ok thank you, bye, ... next!"

chii• 4 years ago

How someone so unable to speak plainly could forge a career as a professional journalist I have no idea

they speak with the exact degree of obfuscation as is required to get their paycheque.

jws• 4 years ago

I agree these are a travesty no consumer wants, except I notice they do have a braille plaque and a button with a little grill. I presume they will speak their contents to you if you are vision impaired.

That might be nice. So, one redeeming feature.

antsar• 4 years ago

Surely not until they’ve spoken the contents of their ads first.

sreevisakh• 4 years ago

Traditional accessibility features have always been optional. Very important if you need them, but out of the way if you don't. This obviously isn't optional. The trend these days is to hide bad motives behind good uses - like 'lock down all hardware to protect the users' or 'ban all encryption because pedophiles use it'. I'm not implying that that's what you're doing, but this is exactly the argument they are going to come up with.

Another point worth mentioning is that the startup claims that their 'targeted ad' tech is 'identity blind'. (I have visceral hatred towards targeted ads). What is preventing them from making it identity-aware in the future if it succeeds by any chance - especially given the fact that targeted ads work better when it is identity-aware? It will eventually become the real-world equivalent of online cross-site tracking, no matter what the creator claim. Never concede ground to malicious technology just because it has some purported benign uses. Let them just add a braille pad and speaker on the side for users who need it.

zeroimpl• 4 years ago

Interesting, but that makes me wonder how a vision-impaired person could even shop at a grocery store? None of the products have braille on them.

HWR_143• 4 years ago

You are aware that the "excitement" came from a quote from a professor. That wasn't the reporters language? That the reporter included other quotes from people who expressed both annoyance at the presence of the ads and how difficult it was to use.

2Gkashmiri• 4 years ago

this is what i ask about why do we need "Advertising". people do not "WANT" to see adverts, even if it is what has built technologies and paid for advancements.

i would rather stare at a blank wall with a drab white color than watch the newest variety of pizza topping by pizza hut or gilette shaving blade ad.

sure they pay to subsidize tech but i would rather pay to have them not be seen than being forced to watch.

the same is with internet. go and open any website without having ublock origin and you will be surprised or more like outraged because the ad cancer is really really bad.

dotancohen2• 4 years ago

  > How someone so unable to speak plainly could forge a career as a professional journalist I have no idea....

The professional journalist's job is not to spread information. The professional journalist's job is to influence public opinion.

throwaways85989• 4 years ago

This is addressing problems that don't exist. It's solutionism at its worst. We are dumbing down machines that are inherently superior

mhandley• 4 years ago

If people really don't like them, I'm surprised a little mild civil disobediance campaign hasn't broken out, such as wedging the door open after getting something out. They'd soon get the message.

ichugwindex5• 4 years ago

They have cameras on all of them. They could identify you can ban you. But I still agree, they should let in the san francisco shop lifters to smash these unholy screens.

cosmotic• 4 years ago

Cooler Screens CEO is either delusional or manipulative. Or has access to some unusually accurate consumer research that somehow contradicts the apparently incorrect broadly accepted truth.

14• 4 years ago

This would tick me off. I think I would be annoyed and just start swinging every fridge door open as I walked by completely ignoring advertisements.

JohnFen• 4 years ago

No. Just no. Things like this makes the shopping experience much more unpleasant. I'll certainly avoid stores that use this sort of thing while that's possible.

sofixa3• 4 years ago

This is some Internet of Shit worthy shit[1]

1 https://twitter.com/internetofshit

https://www.reddit.com/r/theinternetofshit/

Ansil849• 4 years ago

Recall that Walgreens has a history of making moronic decisions, like contracting with Theranos in spite of receiving clear-cut warnings against doing so.

908B64B197• 4 years ago

How long until someone finds out how to stream to these displays and puts adult content on there?

abnry• 4 years ago

Reminds me of when gas stations play adds on a screen to me while I fill up my tank. Talk about a captive audience!

CoastalCoder2• 4 years ago

If it's a Mobil station, I've found that one of the buttons surrounding the screen will mute it.

Originally the button had "mute" clearly printed on it, but it seems to have been replaced with a totally blank keycap. It still works though.

D13Fd• 4 years ago

The Walgreens by my office, in the city, got these. The motion detection seems to work fine. But it’s pretty jarring look at the beautiful, fully-stocked image on the screen but then open the door to find a picked-over, mostly-empty mess.

alistairSH• 4 years ago

Well on our way to the dystopian hellscape that is the Bladerunner universe.

The first time I see these screens is the last time I shop at that store.

dole• 4 years ago

One interesting thing I’ve noticed about these at my local WGs, they display their product cost next to the retail price when it’s showing the product, so I get a reminder that I’m paying 99 cents for a Arizona tea that cost them 4.

paulpauper• 4 years ago

screens are so cheap they could be installed everywhere. install screens in the shelves so empty shelves do not look so empty

Slix• 4 years ago

I guess I'm in the minority, but I really like these! It's a lot easier to see what's inside than freezer doors that ice and fog up.

silisili• 4 years ago

An iced or fogged up door is a maintenance issue, not a glass issue.

It's like saying I like glass better than a broken lcd...

HWR_143• 4 years ago

Freezer doors ice over and fog up? What are you talking about. I don't think I've even seen frost or fog on a freezer door. Maybe around the perimeter of the glass, but never blocking anything. In fact, that would make me suspect everything in cooler got too warm and spoiled.

FounderBurr3• 4 years ago

Nice try video door salesman.

ichugwindex5• 4 years ago

This guy watches tv for the commercials.

jeltz3• 4 years ago

Do you live in a very humid climate? Because that has never been an issue for me.

II2II• 4 years ago

Walgreens risks angering them by solving a problem that shoppers didn't know existed. The company wants to engage more people with advertising (...)

Contrary to a lot of claims, they are trying to solve a problem. The problem is the problem is of no interest to customers and actually creates problems for customers.

I also wonder how long it will be a benefit for businesses. It is difficult to see how the advertising space can maintain its value if this is rolled out everywhere. It is difficult to see how the advertising space can maintain value once the novelty wears off and consumers largely ignore it. It is difficult to see how stores will manage the expectations and frustrations of consumers.

dhosek3• 4 years ago

Back in the 90s during the dotcom bubble, there was a startup that planned to do things like give people free eggs with ads printed on them. I never got any free eggs and I remember thinking if you give everything away by making money on the ads, what the heck are the ads supposed to be selling?

Even without the eggs, that still seems to be a problem with a lot of the internet economy—a lot of ads seem to be directed towards getting people to visit another site here they get—more ads.

hakfoo2• 4 years ago

I don't think new value is created. What's happening is that value that used to be kept in-house is being absorbed by the AdTech middleman ecosystem.

The classic example: When the local supermarket ran an ad in the daily printed newspaper, the publisher kept basically 100% of the ad spend (minus the marginal costs for newsprint, ink, and the labour to deal with the ad copy. Now they submit an ad to some network which generously kicks some percentage of that revenue back to localnewspaper.com.

In this case, I'd expect that some of the money being thrown at Cooler Screens is coming from other ad spend verticals-- maybe a few less TV ads or one less page in the weekly newspaper circular.

If Walgreens built their own screens it would still be a stupid idea, but it would probably be more cost-effective than paying someone else who owns the technology and is probably mostly interested in making a pitch to go public some day.

possiblydrunk• 4 years ago

Lol. When I read the title I immediately jumped to the (silly) assumption that they replaced the doors with open mesh screen doors. Had a real hard time guessing why!

Applejinx• 4 years ago

Likewise. Mind you, that'd be more pleasing.

jaclaz2• 4 years ago

Yep, I had the same first thought, the worrying part is that I immediately thought about something like mesh made of some new material (let's say 3D printed graphene nanotubes) in order to save energy.

afrcnc• 4 years ago

share the actual damn link.... not this lite bs...

there's images in that article that make this lite version absolutely useless

brailsafe• 4 years ago

Working on this must be one of those jobs you take because the pay was good and the interview was easy, so you shrug and take a paycheck for a while. Not unlike most SE jobs I guess

sloshnmosh• 4 years ago

Walgreens has always tried to harvest every single penny they could squeeze from their customers, mainly by selling the customers PII to anyone and everyone, so this is no big surprise to me.

It reminds me of the obnoxious talking gas pumps that play ads while you’re filling your car.

At first there used to be a “mute” button to where you could silence the crap and all the plastic was worn away from everyone mashing it trying to shut it up.

Now I no longer see any option to mute the ads.

I hate ads with a passion and won’t allow them to run on my devices. Mainly for security and privacy but the aggravation they cause is palpable.

Whenever I work on someone else’s computer and open a web browser I am in shock that people can even concentrate with all the garbage on the screen.

Underphil• 4 years ago

The amusing part is that most gas stations have signs asking you to stay with your vehicles whilst they're filling.

Given that being in the car is not the best place to be, I tend to walk 40ft away to get away from the insanely loud adverts.

jordemort• 4 years ago

It's me. I am "some shoppers."

310260• 4 years ago

Praying this startup crashes and burns so I can see what's actually physically inside the fridges again. If I'm in the store, I'm already looking to buy. I don't need more advertising to encourage me.

To Avakian, it's simply an expected growing pain. Cooler Screens plans to educate >customers about the digital displays and launch features like voice recognition, >so shoppers can ask about prices or item locations.

So unintuitive and user-hostile that you have to "educate" customers about them.

ergocoder2• 4 years ago

You gotta admire the sales skills of these founders.

How the heck did they make this deal with Walgreen when it is obviously bad?

notatoad• 4 years ago

I'm sure Walgreens is being well compensated for this.

I'm going to assume they got a bunch of VC money with a pitch of "we found a space that doesn't have ads on it yet, and we can fix that". And now they're paying more than the value of the ads to Walgreens. They'll probably raise another round of funding off the "success" of this contract, and then bail.

barnbuilder2• 4 years ago

I guess the same way Theranos made a deal with Walgreens.

exodust• 4 years ago

If I'm in the store, I'm already looking to buy.

Yep exactly. In the big chain supermarket near me they continually play their brand jingle, along with ads for themselves. The jingle is repetitive and simple, just 7 notes that match the syllables of the "lyrics" - a tedious line about fresh food.

I'm already there buying stuff, so can only guess their tactic of spamming the store with their jingle, is based on some theory of reinforcement.

I've also noticed a news radio program I sometimes listen to, is now taking more breaks to advertise themselves. Not programs or content, but just how good they think they are in general, and how trustworthy they are. It's self-congratulatory cringe. The person who decides if they're trustworthy is me, the listener, not them telling me over and over that I should trust them.

laurent922• 4 years ago

I was so happy moving houses because I’ll stop hearing that jingle. I now have the choice between two supermarkets, and I purposedly avoid the old brand because of the jingle, even though the other seems a bit more expensive. It’s driving up sales!

quintushoratius3• 4 years ago

I've also noticed a news radio program I sometimes listen to, is now taking more breaks to advertise themselves. Not programs or content, but just how good they think they are in general, and how trustworthy they are. It's self-congratulatory cringe.

Touting a particular feature is generally a sign that you don't actually have that feature.

Food advertised as healthy ("now with 10 vitamins and minerals!") is probably junk food masquerading as healthy. The tomatoes and broccoli in the produce section, on the other hand, have no advertising but you know they're healthy.

Along those same lines, if I have to tell you how trustworthy I am, you should take everything I say with a grain of salt. IMHO you need to find a new (better) favorite news source.

dhosek3• 4 years ago

"some" shoppers? Who are the ones who like it? It's a blood nuisance to have to open the door to see if the claimed product is actually there. It's especially bad over the last two years when stuff unpredictably goes in and out of stock.

Is there anyone who actually likes these monstrosities?

alephxyz• 4 years ago

Only possible scenario where this might be helpful is on hot humid summer days where the inside of the glass doors are covered in frost because some idiots keep the doors open far too long when choosing their ice cream.

But just having a "dumb" label outside the door would work just as well.

pipeline_peak• 4 years ago

The HN user in me suspects some sort of conspiracy of this “startup” paying retailers to do this. I can’t imagine a company unwittingly annoying consumers this much. The whole idea is so unsettling and dystopian feeling, I’m sure even the people behind Cooler Screens knows it’s awful.

5evOX5hTZ9mYa9E• 4 years ago

I'm certain this was a high-level deal between the two companies, and both executives got a bonus while the lower down in the org chart you go more obvious it is how awful these are.

npmaile• 4 years ago

I live near a walgreens with this, and the worst part about it is when the screen is broken, and it doesn't serve the basic purpose of allowing me to know what beverages are behind the window.

Actually, now that I think of it when the system is "working properly" I still can't be sure of what's behind the door if I open it.

Totally worthless use of technology.

1123581321• 4 years ago

This is at least partially about papering over inventory, theft or stocking neatness issues without increasing their inventory on hand or finding enough staff. Walgreens has just about had it trying to make its current retail model work in some markets. Ultimately, solutions like Cooler Screens are stopgaps on the way to smaller stores that just vend, hand out online orders, and other things that don't require managing shelves and aisles on the retail side. (Source: a regional retail manager at WBA.)

justinlloyd• 4 years ago

I just want Haagen Dazs ice cream. But I cannot see which freezer it is actually in until the ad stops, then it states it is in this particular freezer. But it isn't because they ran out and an employee hasn't restocked.

Next the doors on the freezer will lock until the ad has finished playing all the way through, and the ad will stop playing if you look away in distraction.

Also, the gas will stop pumping if you don't look at ad on the screen on the pump at the gas station and you must also verbally engage with the ad when it asks a question otherwise it stops pumping. If you answer enthusiastically it will waive the $2 surcharge because you had the audacity to use a debit card.

I am so glad I am getting old and will die soon so I don't have to live in this dystopian hellhole the new generation are creating for us.

screamingninja• 4 years ago

Reminds me of that episode of Black Mirror - Fifteen Million Merits

jgod• 4 years ago

The Experts Have Spoken: It's Good For Us

emptyparadise• 4 years ago

It's not enough to put up with the hell world you live in, you must like it too.

lamontcg• 4 years ago

All this advertising shit needs to so desperately be banned for everyone's mental health but the country would probably lose its fucking mind if anyone tried, so the boring hellscape will just grind on getting worse.

SirZimzim• 4 years ago

Very true, browsing websites without AdBlock is already horrendous we can't allow it to bleed into the real world. We need to clamp down on ads with legal regulations, everything good is slowly ruined by them. Humans should have the right to live ad free as much as possible.

thedrbrian• 4 years ago

Next the doors on the freezer will lock until the ad has finished playing all the way through, and the ad will stop playing if you look away in distraction. Also, the gas will stop pumping if you don't look at ad on the screen on the pump at the gas station and you must also verbally engage with the ad when it asks a question otherwise it stops pumping. If you answer enthusiastically it will waive the $2 surcharge because you had the audacity to use a debit card.

I’m getting vibes of DRINK VERIFICATION CAN TO CONTINUE and Sony’s advert patent https://www.engadget.com/2012-08-24-sony-patent-wants-to-mak...

beeboop3• 4 years ago

MOUNTAIN DEW IS FOR ME AND YOU

DangitBobby• 4 years ago

Which generation do you think it is doing this?

MrMember• 4 years ago

https://cdn.gamer-network.net/2021/articles/2021-01-19-20-13...

MathMonkeyMan• 4 years ago

I'm a fucking whore.

cable2600• 4 years ago

It reminds me of the talking Coca Cola machine. It annoyed people a lot and they had to get rid of it.

iamleppert• 4 years ago

I actually really love the screens. I can’t wait until they open up their developer API! They are offering a starter kit for your home refrigerator where you can practice building ads using their WYSIWYG tool. I’m pretty psyched for the native app toolkit, for now you have to write your CoolerApp in React but pretty soon with the CoolerAppNX devkit you’ll get full native access to the live camera feeds, OpenCV and Google TPU module, even be able to read the cooler temperature in near real time!

Just think of the innovative apps apps apps and experiences we’ll be able to build with those new features! CoolerGraph is coming out soon, can’t wait to attend the hack a thon at CoolerLabs!! They have free Pizza and RedBull!

Sleep, code, sleep dudes!!

ichugwindex5• 4 years ago

How long have you been working for them?

34679• 4 years ago

How many people here who were annoyed by the experience ended up purchasing less or nothing at all as a result?

The only way to make this go away is, when you come upon one of these displays, set your items down and leave without purchasing anything. Spend your money somewhere without one while you still have the option.

squarefoot• 4 years ago

The next development seems easy to predict: users profiling and targeted ads through detection of the passerby's phone Bluetooth BD_ADDR, both at the counter and the fridges.

irrational• 4 years ago

I’d just go though and open all of the doors to find what I’m looking for. Perhaps the ad money will offset the higher electric bill.

psyklic• 4 years ago

This reminds me when McDonalds cycled through fullscreen ads obscuring their digital menus. They also slowly cycled through menu items and deals, leading to awkward delays at the cash registers waiting to see the full menu.

ahoka• 4 years ago

"Cooler Screens CEO Avakian said he developed the concept after watching in-store customers whip out their phones to find product information and reviews."

Naturally consumers want less information asymmetry when buying things, that's why they seek external reviews. Let's try to add more to this asymmetry by hiding the actual product behind some manipulative short films!

Why do American companies hate the free market?

FounderBurr3• 4 years ago

Hey Walgreens, when I see this I’ll just never return to your store to subject myself to this garbage. Same as I never return to gas stations with screeching televisions on the gas pumps or retail stores with a million blaring televisions shouting ads in every isle.

hyperman1• 4 years ago

I recently went to the local Action, and it turns out they were 'running an experiment':

They want to push people to the self checkout as much as possible, so they actually decided to close cashier checkouts for everyone paying with cards. In fact, all cashier checkouts were simply closed, and if you wanted to pay with cash, they had to call around to find a cashier and open one.

Self checkout zone looked like a slice of hell. All self checkout machines were non stop signalling they needed attention from the cashier. The only available cashier, a young girl, was running around like crazy, everybody angry at her, and she was excusing herself to all clients. She was completely exhausted. There was a long row behind the self check out.

I want to buy an USB stick. These are only available at cashier checkouts, and I am not allowed there unless I pay with paper money - this was confirmed by another staff member. I kid you not, you actually can't buy an USB stick anymore, except with cash. So I hid my purchases in a corner (with an OK from their staff of course), went outside the shop, used my bank card at an ATM to get some paper money, went back inside the shop. The girl opened a cashier checkout, gave me the USB stick, and I paid cash and got my change. She actually looked glad to be anywhere else than in self checkout hell for a minute. Meanwhile, multiple people were actually literally screaming for attention in the self checkout zone. When we got back, all 6 self checkout machines were blocked for some dumb whiney reason, and everyone was glaring angrily at both of us for the additional delay.

The basic idea for a shop is: I get stuff, they get money. It seems a lot of the big chains are so far gone trying to optimize whatever metric, they forgot this basic idea.

jaclaz2• 4 years ago

Side question.

How much would one of these screens/doors cost?

They are essentially (bar the software) a huge TV (or digital signage) screen + sensors/webcams (and most probably Wi-Fi or similar), possibly with some added extra cost for thermal insulation and/or "side" cooling.

But they are huge, something like 80 cm x 2 m, using diagonal inches something like 85-90.

Wouldn't that have a cost in the 2,000-3,000 US$ range each?

jurassic• 4 years ago

This is right up there with gas station pumps that blare video ads at max volume while pumping gas. The “experience” is extra good when a different ad kicks off simultaneously for the person on the other side of the pump, or the next pump over. Somebody should be facing criminal penalties for these.

jhpaul• 4 years ago

FYI you can often press the (unlabeled) second soft button from the top on the right side of the screen to mute video ads on the gas pump.

spicyusername• 4 years ago

Please no more ads. We're building such an inhuman ad-centric hellscape. The madness has to stop.

XCSme• 4 years ago

Why not put the ads somewhere else?

Also, you are already in the shop, going to buy stuff anyway, what's the point of advertising the same product that's on the shelf?

Walgreens replaced some fridge doors with screens, and some shoppers hate it

Related Stories