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> The company wants to engage more people with advertising [...] > Retailers are eager to add new experiences to their physical stores. But many consumers aren

> 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....

Groxx 5y 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.
- dhosek 5y ago
  That 90% claim sounds like a bare-faced lie to me.
  - aceazzameen 5y ago
    Can't lose that sweet Walgreens contract, right?
- FounderBurr 5y ago
  Marketing wank. Nothing screams failure like appearing on media lying about how everyone likes you so much.
- hughrr 5y ago
  Sounds like they surveyed 9 members of the marketing and MBA class team and one software person.
  - LadyCailin 5y ago
    This comment reminds me of a brilliant commercial from many years ago, where Trident parodied the X out of Y approve meme: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xAVALXH9nxU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xAVALXH9nxU
- vba616 5y 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 5y 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!"
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
orlp 5y ago
The last thing I want in a grocery store is an "experience". I just want to buy my stuff and go home.
- happytiger 5y 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?
  - rhizome 5y ago
    A consumer of Walgreen's stock, which needs something new, anything, to juice attention and move the price, since it's taboo to be a public company that just cruises along. The de facto primacy of stock performance in executive qualifications means you have a lot more fridge-screens to look forward to if the initial antipathy toward these fades into begruding acceptance the way they are predicting.
- bko 5y 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)
  - beeboop 5y ago
    Having item A showing the price in $ per pound and then the nearly identical item B next to it showing $ per ounce is the bane of my existence.
    - Out_of_Characte 5y ago
      If only there was an easy metric to convert to and from different base values.
journalizer 5y 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.
civilized 5y 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 5y 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 5y 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 5y 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.
chii 5y 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 5y 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 5y ago
  Surely not until they’ve spoken the contents of their ads first.
- sreevisakh 5y 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 5y 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_14 5y 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 5y 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.
dotancohen 5y 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.

Groxx 5y 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.

dhosek 5y ago
That 90% claim sounds like a bare-faced lie to me.
- aceazzameen 5y ago
  Can't lose that sweet Walgreens contract, right?
FounderBurr 5y ago
Marketing wank. Nothing screams failure like appearing on media lying about how everyone likes you so much.
hughrr 5y ago
Sounds like they surveyed 9 members of the marketing and MBA class team and one software person.
- LadyCailin 5y ago
  This comment reminds me of a brilliant commercial from many years ago, where Trident parodied the X out of Y approve meme: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xAVALXH9nxU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xAVALXH9nxU
vba616 5y 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 5y 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!"
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

orlp 5y ago

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

happytiger 5y 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?
- rhizome 5y ago
  A consumer of Walgreen's stock, which needs something new, anything, to juice attention and move the price, since it's taboo to be a public company that just cruises along. The de facto primacy of stock performance in executive qualifications means you have a lot more fridge-screens to look forward to if the initial antipathy toward these fades into begruding acceptance the way they are predicting.
bko 5y 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)
- beeboop 5y ago
  Having item A showing the price in $ per pound and then the nearly identical item B next to it showing $ per ounce is the bane of my existence.
  - Out_of_Characte 5y ago
    If only there was an easy metric to convert to and from different base values.

journalizer 5y 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.

civilized 5y 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 5y 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 5y 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 5y 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.

chii 5y 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 5y 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 5y ago
Surely not until they’ve spoken the contents of their ads first.
sreevisakh 5y 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 5y 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_14 5y 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 5y 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.

dotancohen 5y 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.