Insider has written about Cooler Screens who raised over $100 million in venture capital to install high-tech digital screens that would flash product information and advertisements at consumers while they were shopping for cold beverages. Included as retail partners were a number of  large companies including Walmart, Walgreens, Kroger, CVS, Get Go and Chevron.

Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Cooler Screens, led by CEO Greg Wasson, is suing Walgreens for $200 million asserting that Walgreen’s CEO, Roz Brewer, reneged on an agreement between the companies to replace glass doors on store refrigerator displays with their Cooler Screens Smart Doors digital product.

Cooler Screens said it spent $45 million making and installing doors in the first 700 stores, $88 million on doors that haven’t been installed, and more than $100 million on third-party vendors.

Walgreens customers have given the doors mixed reviews, according to media accounts.  Walgreens has declined to comment on the suit, citing “pending litigation.”

One additional item to note. Cooler Screens CEO, Greg Wasson, was the CEO of Walgreens from 2009 to 2014.

Insiders take: It was interesting to look back at our March 2022 article and note that we said the following:

The large retailers like in-store advertising.  Walmart, as an example, operates on high sales volume and low margins and the high margins generated from digital advertising is enticing.  The Cooler Screens provide easy access to a lot of shoppers and  the screens are (very) hard to ignore.

Cooler Screens says that their screens provide “an exciting new digital shopping experience in the freezer and refrigerator aisles of local grocery, drug, and convenience stores”.

Maybe we are old fashioned, but this experience seems overly immersive to us.

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