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> As part of a 10-year contract with Walgreens for a split of the ad revenue, Cooler Screens had installed 10,000 smart doors at hundreds of US locations like t

by duxup 2y ago

> As part of a 10-year contract with Walgreens for a split of the ad revenue, Cooler Screens had installed 10,000 smart doors at hundreds of US locations like this one. It planned to install 35,000 more Why not do a smaller test run to gauge response? I question the ability for anyone who oked this to make basic decisions…

excalibur 2y ago
Agreed, the people who set and approved the pilot size are the important ones to remove from the decision making process
csours 2y ago
FOMO? Perhaps they were offered exclusivity? Also, it's a brand new income stream. Managers love to talk about income streams at shareholder meetings.
- canucker2016 2y ago
  FTA: "Avakian co-founded the startup with former Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson, who helped secure the deal with his old employer." The article also mentions that, under Wasson, Walgreens invested millions in Theranos. Great track record there.
add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
Per the article, they did.
DwnVoteHoneyPot 2y ago
The article says "He and Wasson say that based on their PowerPoint presentation, the company approved a six-store pilot program for 2018. Pilot data showed the screens resulting in more than a 5% incremental sales jump, and Walgreens committed to installing them in an additional 50 stores the next year as part of a decade-long deal. In late 2020, after Walgreens agreed to add another 2,450"
- covercash 2y ago
  The Cooler Screens CEO sounds like a “fake it till you make it at all costs” kind of guy just based on the allegations of fraud at his tea company and his conspiracy allegations at the Four Seasons interview. I’d be very wary of any data provided by his company indicating increased sales, it’s very easy to manipulate the excel data if nobody is verifying how the data was collected in the first place.
  - kevinventullo 2y ago
    But shouldn’t increased sales numbers be something Walgreens measures? On the other hand, this was probably some mid-level exec’s chance at growing in the company, so maybe there was some internal incentive to massage the numbers (e.g. maybe 5% is much smaller than the per-store standard deviation). I dunno, just guessing.
    - yorwba 2y ago
      The article mentions "[Cooler Screens CEO] Avakian [...] says [Walgreens] turned off its access to point-of-sale data for products outside the cold section, which brands like Revlon needed to confirm lipstick ads on fridges really were enticing shoppers to walk over to the beauty aisle."
- tessierashpool9 2y ago
  > Pilot data showed the screens resulting in more than a 5% incremental sales jump because it's a novelty and draws attention. soon afterwards replaced with annoyance about this total nonsense.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
rcarmo 2y ago
In corporate speak, this was a major sales win for that startup, and I don’t think they would have gone this far without a lot of people at Walgreens buying into the concept. Which makes me think there is a major disconnect between those people and Walgreens customers—I mean, it’s obvious that people who like shopping like to browse, and that they also like to have the least possible amount of stuff between them and what they are looking for. So completely breaking that experience (and often having people open doors that had no product behind them) is probably frustrating enough for those people to shop elsewhere, or to simply avoid those aisles and shop less. Genius move, if you want to lose customers.

by duxup 2y ago

excalibur 2y ago

Agreed, the people who set and approved the pilot size are the important ones to remove from the decision making process

csours 2y ago

FOMO? Perhaps they were offered exclusivity? Also, it's a brand new income stream. Managers love to talk about income streams at shareholder meetings.

canucker2016 2y ago
FTA: "Avakian co-founded the startup with former Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson, who helped secure the deal with his old employer." The article also mentions that, under Wasson, Walgreens invested millions in Theranos. Great track record there.

add-sub-mul-div 2y ago

Per the article, they did.

DwnVoteHoneyPot 2y ago

The article says "He and Wasson say that based on their PowerPoint presentation, the company approved a six-store pilot program for 2018. Pilot data showed the screens resulting in more than a 5% incremental sales jump, and Walgreens committed to installing them in an additional 50 stores the next year as part of a decade-long deal. In late 2020, after Walgreens agreed to add another 2,450"

covercash 2y ago
The Cooler Screens CEO sounds like a “fake it till you make it at all costs” kind of guy just based on the allegations of fraud at his tea company and his conspiracy allegations at the Four Seasons interview. I’d be very wary of any data provided by his company indicating increased sales, it’s very easy to manipulate the excel data if nobody is verifying how the data was collected in the first place.
- kevinventullo 2y ago
  But shouldn’t increased sales numbers be something Walgreens measures? On the other hand, this was probably some mid-level exec’s chance at growing in the company, so maybe there was some internal incentive to massage the numbers (e.g. maybe 5% is much smaller than the per-store standard deviation). I dunno, just guessing.
  - yorwba 2y ago
    The article mentions "[Cooler Screens CEO] Avakian [...] says [Walgreens] turned off its access to point-of-sale data for products outside the cold section, which brands like Revlon needed to confirm lipstick ads on fridges really were enticing shoppers to walk over to the beauty aisle."
tessierashpool9 2y ago
> Pilot data showed the screens resulting in more than a 5% incremental sales jump because it's a novelty and draws attention. soon afterwards replaced with annoyance about this total nonsense.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

rcarmo 2y ago

In corporate speak, this was a major sales win for that startup, and I don’t think they would have gone this far without a lot of people at Walgreens buying into the concept. Which makes me think there is a major disconnect between those people and Walgreens customers—I mean, it’s obvious that people who like shopping like to browse, and that they also like to have the least possible amount of stuff between them and what they are looking for. So completely breaking that experience (and often having people open doors that had no product behind them) is probably frustrating enough for those people to shop elsewhere, or to simply avoid those aisles and shop less. Genius move, if you want to lose customers.