191–200 of 253 posts
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> The gas pumps that play advertisements while your car fills are incredibly obnoxious and makes me regret being a customer. Deface them. This is legitimate defense.
I live somewhere that a person pumps my gas for me. No ads!
The reliability issues are surprising: First on some testbench, developing software, power supply, (physical) install procedures, etc. With that done, one would expect to outfit a few stores to see how they work IRL. But no: "The initial round of installations in 2018 reached 10,300 screens in 700 stores." As part of a $200 million plan to cover 2,500 stores. From testbench to fitting 10k screens across 700 stores, w…
I work in digital signage. We don't do these, but we do have other products aimed at retail. Most of these displays are powered by run of the mill Windows machines. Often they are just standard off the shelf hardware, which when packed in an enclosed space with other electronics, and wrapped with cardboard, doesn't last too long. Even the screens are often just standard bigbox store TVs, although some manufactures do…
We were demoed these screens by one of those display providers (probably Planar) probably 8 years back... If these are the 'transparent' door displays my understanding is that they are essentially just normal displays without backlights/or that foil backing. They were pretty experimental at the time and they were seeing if we had any room to experiment with them (we didn't at the time)..
We did a bunch of experiments around 'ad tracking' displays in store by mounting cameras as well and writing basic opencv code that detected people looking at the display with mixed results.
I've been out of the game awhile though.
But they do suck from a technical perspective and while I used to occasionally grab a case of beer or a cold soda from Walgreens I pretty much avoid it for that now, because the prices are still terrible and now the experience is too.
Not sure I have been to a drug store of any kind in a few years though. Are these different? Truly screens so you can't see what's in the cabinets?
When I read the title of this post, Cooler Screens, I expected it were about screens that somehow were -- literally and/or figuratively -- cooler. Alas, it appears to be a not-so-cool Walgreens idea that came into practice. PS Where does the weird name, Walgreens, come from? Maybe the name originated from the same 'great mind' having this 'cool' idea?
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> The gas pumps that play advertisements while your car fills are incredibly obnoxious and makes me regret being a customer. Deface them. This is legitimate defense.
No, this is how frustrated children solve their problems. Please don't recommend it.
Channel the inner 5 year old. It's the only way to be sure.
It has a complexity that is equal to its lack of utility.
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LOL from their homepage: The retail experience consumers want and deserve Cooler Screens was founded on the core idea that consumers deserve a better experience in brick-and-mortar retail. We bring in store consumers an irresistible experience with what they love about shopping online: ease, relevance, and transparency. 90%+ of consumers no longer prefer traditional glass cooler doors Fortunately we don't have them w…
> We bring in store consumers... transparency. I mean... come on. Surely someone must have noticed this? Is it some kind of cruel joke?
I thought the article we're discussing covered it well.
> "Transparency" seems like a poor choice of language when promoting a product that infamously compares poorly to the transparent door it replaces.
In an internet full of low-effort outrage hot takes, I have to say I love (and miss) this kind of writing style that's polemical but witty and restrained. One of my favorite quotes: > "Age-old advertising technology would use the context that you are in front of the ice cream door as a trigger to display the ice cream through the door. In the era of the Cooler Screen, though, the ice cream itself is hidden safely out…
Another great line:
> Cooler Screens promise to bring the experience of shopping online, "ease, relevance, and transparency." "Transparency" seems like a poor choice of language when promoting a product that infamously compares poorly to the transparent door it replaces.