sara mchenry: the tv screen cooler doors are such an obvious example of Shitty Future to me. anyone who has ever been to a store could tell you those were going to break immediately and then be useless. and yet they started putting them in everywhere, because new, and now we have this, which is much worse.

the tv screen cooler doors are such an obvious example of Shitty Future to me. anyone who has ever been to a store could tell you those were going to break immediately and then be useless. and yet they started putting them in everywhere, because new, and now we have this, which is much worse.

no way am I falling for this again

did you know the company that makes these stupid things is suing walgreens for breach of contract - and that one of the founders was a ceo at walgreens. he's the same ceo that made the deal with theranos www.sixteen-nine.net/2023/06/09/c...

Cooler Screens Suing Whale Customer Walgreens For $200M Over Halted Rolloutwww.sixteen-nine.net The company that has been building out a retail media network based around “smart” transparent LCD chiller doors in major chains is now involved in a $200 million lawsuit against a whal…

holy SHIT

this is VERY funny

Clear wasn’t smart enough?

Clear doesn’t create room for selling ad space on the doors, or justify the cameras which trigger the doors but also can track your shopping behaviors.

The doors also promised to provide inventory tracking to assist with restocking using the cameras. That function is smart and useful for all, but I’d say the overall cost-benefit is still about 10 years away from being feasible (even if you take away the digital signage aspect).

The whole thing makes perfect sense now

White men always failing up

I don't know how I've missed this entire thing but I'm so grateful.

you rarely hear of people as fucking stupid as Greg Wasson but here you go

This is incredible

hahahahahah holy shit

"Vegas (derogatory)" lmaooo

All I am saying is, what if an expensive energy-consuming television could give you a wrong version of the same information you would get by having your eyes open? The answer might surprise you

i had someone try to argue with me that these were ACK-shually more energy-efficient than glass doors bc the extra thickness of flatscreen better insulates the cooler and

I heard this too the first time I saw them. Seemed counter intuitive even then, and I didn't even think of the maintenance costs

it's absolute hogwash, is the thing

If I recall this was a wink/nod deal between the former Walgreens CEO who created his own company that sells these pieces of shit.

Apparently Walgreens stopped putting them in because the new CEO hated them. They don’t appear to be delivering any benefits, which is unsurprising to anyone who has encountered them.

yes I was just reading this! they're so bad! what a terrible decision in the first place!

I’m glad Patrick linked that article for you because I was feeling too lazy to track it down

Ugh if ONLY there was some sort of way to know what was inside. Some sort of invisible panel

They should put a camera on the back of the door so that the screen can show you what's inside

The camera is on the front though so they can sell the surveillance data to cops and other malicious 3rd parties

As opposed to….clear glass?

Then they could computer vision to detect what products were inside and then they could render them on a 3D TV screen on the outside, as if you could see THROUGH the door!

I heard they're working on doors that are virtually INVISIBLE! You can actually SEE THROUGH THEM but yet all the cold air stays inside. I dont understand the technology but it sounds fascinating

the future, is truly here

Probably based on the space-age technology they've been using on light-permeable screens that keep the wind out of jet cockpits while giving the pilot forward visibility. I'm guessing that tech could have a lot of commercial value if they could just figure out some way to manufacture it cheaply.

Did they talk to anyone before making this product? I can’t come up with a use case that’s better than just regular doors.

I think they talked to advertisers, who agreed it was a cool and fun idea that everyone else would love

Probably. It also sounds like a HiPPO idea (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion)

I have never heard that term before lol it's great

It’s sadly applicable to a lot of projects lol, some half-baked dumb idea that the HiPPO IMMEDIATELY knows is brilliant, go build it, why isn’t it built?? See also: Cybertruck

The only thing I can possibly think of is that the door could be made more insulating than glass, which would lead to less energy to keep it cold, but I think that’s giving them way too much credit (plus it’s probably canceled out by people opening the door more often to just see what’s inside).

I feel like also that the door is only going to be programmed to see the most popular products because otherwise it’s a logistical nightmare (that could be solved by glass lol). So the door might inform me it contains coke/pepsi/mountain dew but I won’t know Orangina is in there too

Not to mention, having to open up every single refrigerated door while swearing to see what is in there is probably just gonna make me decide that actually I don’t want to shop here at all. This really feels like a “The Producers”-style product except I don’t see the grift

Right, like I said, it’s probably being way too generous! Just all I could think of as a real technical argument to get stores to spend the money on it. But either everyone’s opening the doors all the time, or you don’t want to bother so you walk away and don’t buy anything.

Also, I’m not in the pocket of Big Orangina but am completely up for it, Orangina is fantastic, if you’re Big Orangina contact me

i *thought* I had a picture of you from back then with an Orangina, but alas, it's a diet coke

Orangina was a later in life habit

Yet. Electronics give off their own heat.

THEY ARE NEW AND SHINY WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US OUR BLOOD?!

They were so garish. We got them in our local Walgreens. They were hellishly bright and busy and made it harder to navigate the rest of the store. They were also almost immediately inaccurate to the inventory behind them. Then they started glitching and blacking out. Now we just have glass again.

I can’t wait for my Walgreens to get rid of them. The first time I saw one was when I was getting my first covid vaccine! A real “the future is here” type day

I suspect the lawsuit might accelerate that process.

I worked IT in the food industry when this was coming. LCD screens had suddenly become super cheap and every trade show had a bunch of startups selling this and kiosks and digital signage. Doors had an extra boost due to management obsession with planograms.

Yeah any time someone in my office wants to roll out some new tech I ask “…but who’s going to maintain it, though?” and it always catches them by surprise. They get enamored with the new, shiny thing they saw in a cold email and never get around to thinking through the logistics.

Brought to you by the same brilliant minds that thought up the digital gas guage that means I can't tell how much gas I have when it's humid, and my oven, which turns itself on if something drips on it 😮‍💨

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