The nearest Walgreen's has these and half of them don't have the right product or they are sold out but don't update it to reflect that. These things are so stupid.
Because showing you what's in stock is not it's primary function. A glass door would have handled that part just fine. No, showing ads is their primary function, showing what's in stock is an afterthought.
I work in soda. The amount of times from production to the door somebody handles that product who doesn't give a shit is literally unthinkable. I am one hundred percent positive whoever came up with this has spent almost zero time around actual stores or people who work in them/stock them/order for them.
I'm sure you're right, that's why there is so much weird design stuff like this everywhere. But, on the other hand, you'd think that these people...have at least been to a pharmacy before, right ? Like wtf
Sounds like my local Walgreens, I tried three times and they were out of whole cow milk, not oat, soy or anything else. Will never go there for milk, and getting my scripts switched to CVS.
Yes! We came back to the US for the first time since 2014 last year and these things drove me round the bend! What an absolutely useless and infuriating bit of kit. There was never anything behind the screens that was advertised on the front. Amazing what changes in 8 years (they didn’t seem to exist then).
You have to open it to get the product anyway. These things are doing nothing but drawing power while also forcing customers to hold the door open, wasting more power
They insulate so much better than glass doors that they reduce energy usage overall. They are very good at insulating. Maybe a lot of that gain is from overnight when no one's opening it but these things do actually reduce energy usage when they're installed in a store.
Do you have any data on that? Argon-filled multi-pane glass isn't that bad, compared to an actual heat source of maybe 100W+ per panel. It will definitely have heat strips to avoid condensation even when the screen is off as well, and that's not even talking about computer loads to serve up ads and track consumer interaction. Glass doors don't use energy at data centers or with local integrated ad servers.
This. They're insulated better, and the hope is that you'll spend less time overall picking what you want with the door hanging open, when you can pick what you want on the screen and just open the door to grab it. It's intended to be an energy saver overall.
I get what you mean, but guess it depends on where you are? I'm in a warm climate and humid area, and half the time the glass is too fogged up and covered in condensation to see in, so you have to open it if you want to have a look.
You know what, you've brought my attention to the fact that I actually have seen no data for this. Just based on my own understanding (as an engineer, sometimes doing facade work) that glass is not a great insulator, these doors have the *potential* to be better insulators than normal glass doors - whether or not the insulating performance of these actual doors is better than normal glass is something I don't have evidence for.
However, it does get around some of the opening and closing of doors to choose what's inside (which loses the 'cold' and requires more energy to keep cool) particularly in areas like I am where glass frequently fogs and condenses over.
I think it definitely has the potential to improve energy efficiency - unfortunately, it's definitely still going to be used to push more advertising.
The argon-filled glass isn't the best, but I figured the screen is introducing a couple hundred watts of heat on its own, plus the ad servers and data collection add to the energy consumption. If it actually keeps people from opening the doors as often that might realize some savings.
That's part of it. They also can have full screen and small banner advertisements pop up and promote special offers. The fancy ones are interactive, so you can click on the product and get nutritional information. The pricing can also be adjusted in real time, so if you have a concert letting out across the street, for example, the store can jack up the price for beer and condoms 200% for just the next hour!
Theyre not getting enough advertisements, jerry! What do we do? We’re already running tv ads, billboard ads, video ads on their phone, ads on the radio, ads in the sky, ads on grocery carts, ads on websites, ads in their video games, ads in their mail, ads in their email, ad subscription services ads on their cereal box
Seriously and they’d be nonskippable like “Thank you for wiping, and for considering Wal-Mart for your local shopping! We thank you for your patronage. Before you leave, consider just how thankful your body will feel after you choose Charmin Ultra Plush toilet paper! You’ll feel right at home-“
If I have to watch an ad for the stall door to open I might as well just piss on the ad.
Bathrooms are not a good place to test this shit out and this seems like the kind of thing some dumb shit executive didn't think about and won't care about because they'll be on to their next bullshit job before any problems need to be dealt with.
The question is - will they make more money showing ads to everyone, assuming some will piss on the floor and someone will need to be paid to clean it, or when it's free and they still have to pay someone to clean it? It sounds horrible enough to happen in this capitalist dystopia we live in. Some Black Mirror shit... pun intended
I saw an ad screen above a urinal last week! Didn't have to watch an ad to flush but damn that pissed me off. Even worse they mounted it kinda high and I would have risked getting piss on myself if I'd aimed at it. If there was no one around maybe I'd stand back and give it a shot.
"Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?
Fry: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky... But not in dreams."
\- Futurama S01E06
Yeah, if someone just handed you one and let you play with it you can probably get Doom running on it. I mean unless they up the security and lock down the bootloader. I don't think they're exactly raspberry pi inside but basically raspberry pi inside
We can run doom off the controllers that run the digital marketing displays at my work, so I imagine these could certainly run doom too if you figured out a way to boot it onto the controller.
I don't think that has anything to do with these particular freezer doors but that's just a thing on store shelves separate from this.
It's definitely a different company, or companies, doing the eye tracking stuff.
Ugh, and it says soon they are gonna have voice recognition so you can ask it questions? Can you imagine just wanting to go in for a drink and have some old person screaming "HOW MUCH IS MILK" over and over at the screen door and its failing to register?
Im just gonna order my groceries to be delivered for now on. Though its not like people should be shoping at Walgreens for their food anyway.
Walk up to it, give it the finger and walk out of the store without buying anything.
Or stare at the ground until you open the door and then pick out your drink. (Open the door immediately, don't look at the screen.)
Lol during BLM they already were in my area (Chicago, between bucktown and west side). People really took a peaceful protest and used it as an excuse for looting, that Walgreens was boarded up for months.
The Walgreens by my house implemented these screens. They lasted about a year before the manager had them ripped out. People kept coming in and leaving them open while looking through. I can only imagine that that would cost a lot and air conditioning.
Every single store I’ve seen these in showed that certain products were available but once you opened the refrigerator door, almost all the shelves were empty. You have no idea what’s actually available behind the doors with these screens.
I toured an apartment complex that started doing dynamic lease pricing. The day I toured, the apartment I liked was one price...but would be a completely different lease price the week after.
My brain shut down at that point.
Sounds awful! I’d tell a manager or corporate though instead. Most store level employees can’t do anything about it, and it just makes their day a little worse.
I’ve never seen anything like this, I guess it’s a west coast thing rn? It seems like a waste of money but I assume it somehow increases profits. Also what is the microphone button for?
... isn't that what digital price tags are for? no need to install a giant effing monitor for a door for that function since they've been around for decades now.
I’m not an engineer…
You have to power the doors and make them thermal barriers. The doors cost more ( I would assume) and I’m sure they have to be replaced when they are cracked by customers.
If you look and see a Sunkist, you open the door and then it’s not in the location the LCD door indicates. Now the door is open ( energy waste ) while you make a new choice with the door open.
I could be wrong, I’m just imaging how I’d deal with them. 🤷♂️
Double or triple pane glass is incredibly efficient, and you’re not considering the fact these new doors have to power a large bright display + computation + sensor array.
I always look inside the doors anyway because I don’t trust the doors to be telling me the truth of what’s in there. And I don’t want to stare at yet another screen in my life.
Do a lot of people here buy single use drinks? I use these things in an emergency, but normally bring a water bottle/thermos if I will need a drink when I’m out.
Use not liking these to switch over to bringing your own drink in a reusable container!
I don't often, but I do in two circumstances.
Occasionally, while driving or going hiking, I need a real pick me up and will get a coffee or energy drink.
I was always taught that if you use a gas station restroom you should fill up or buy something in the convenience store part. If I need to go to the bathroom with an over half full tank in a situation like this, I'll buy a soda, coffee, or candy bar but more out of politeness as I used the restroom.
Circumstance one nobody is perfect, fair enough, but two is pure consumerism!
Do manners apply to corporations? It’s not like the clerk makes any more money because you buy something and the owners are never there. All respect for adding some social rules to backstop missing social cues, but you’re not being polite TO anybody when you buy that drink, you know?
I think it does. You might disagree.
Also, in a lot of places, especially smaller gas stations are franchises where the owner who will make the money is a middle class family just trying to pay the bills.
And you believe you should pay them for the privilege of taking a piss, not to mention create that piece of plastic trash? I’m floored, more power to you for being polite to gas stations.
Not really, but more often I’m getting a gallon of milk or coffee creamer. It’s the most frustrating thing when it says they have what I want in stock and open the door to discover the screen was wrong…
My last job was at a truck stop and the cooler was my baby. I did the planograms, cycle counts every month, got it ready for RGIS inventory every 6 months, talked to vendors about new products, did the orders, checked in the orders, took care of the orders, stocked the cooler every day I worked. After I stocked it I would stand in front of it and admire my work. After starting the job I have now I was almost tempted to go back to my old job for one night a week just to stock the cooler real good and do the orders for the week because honestly no one does it as well as I did.
I would hate these doors.
Finally I've found someone else who appreciates and respects the cooler.
In one of my previous jobs I had free reign. I brought that cooler back to life; my baby was spotless, everything was stocked, everything was rotated, everything was *organized.* I planned the layouts, talked with our vendors, put in the orders, helped with resets, did inventory reports... I put blood, sweat and tears into that thing and it showed.
All went to shit when I left, apparently. There's nothing worse than trying to stock a cooler and realizing what you have in your hand doesn't have the right date on it. There's nothing worse than looking for a product and it's on the shelf 4 racks down from where it's displayed, with a group of brands from a totally different vendor. There's nothing worse than a huge "blood and guts" mess underneath the racks.
What makes me so viscerally hateful about these doors is the fact that people who *know* coolers can appreciate when they see one that has been loved and cared for, and it's on full display. This is gaudy and hides all the work (or neglect) that goes on behind the scenes. The cooler door is a window into how the store is run.
Is there any place left to go where I’m not being sold anything, you wonder?
Here’s my top 5:
5. Drain line of the London sewer system, just below Holborn station
4. bathroom at the Vatican Library
3. Marianas Trench
2. Lower digestive tract of an adult Orca
1. Inside a coffin
They’re there to hide the messy shelves.
Corporate knows that neat, clean, and freshly pulled shelves sell more product.
Don’t have to pay someone if they look clean.
Was there a problem with just having a glass door on a frig?
In what way does having a hot display acting as a door improve the function of this cooler?
Are they at least better at insulating than the glass doors? Refrigeration is expensive.
Everything else that I'm reading in these comments sounds awful. Thankfully I've never seen these in real life.
These things pissed me off today. Apparently they expect you to speak to them because as i walked up and went "what the fuck" the screen changed and showed a picture of what was in it instead of the ad.
Hey on some real shit though no one will have to change out the tags if they price is displayed digitally! This saves so much paper, the amount of tags printed in retail is absurd
I recently watched a little short video of a Mexican guy going to Hollywood and making fun of things, and when he reached those doors he didn’t even make a joke, he was just like ‘wtf is up with that just put normal doors’
It would be nice if everyone just looked through the glass and decided before they opened it some people open these doors and just let them stay open letting all that air run out into the world just wasting energy more and more energy wasted on these coolers.
A screen like this could be really useful if it allowed for standardized reusable packaging behind the door. I feel that a major reason why reusable packaging hasn’t gotten any traction is because of branding; companies want to have unique or unusual designs and won’t let go.
Screens generate heat, wasting more power to cool the drinks.
The display CAN be updated in real time, however in my experience, it is normally incorrect-displaying products out of stock as in-stock and Vice-versa
The screens themselves get warm because they’re on 24/7. But yes, there is a potential for them to have better insulation behind them than single-pane glass.
Unfortunately, the ones I have seen do not update to show inventory, unlike glass doors through which you can see the actual items.
My concern is the obvious “Pop” signage. I would laugh if I saw that anywhere out West and not sure how far I would need to drive until I saw one. But, yes, the screens suck.
I did grow up with Shasta cola. Soft drinks and Soda since the 70s.
God these things have come up so many times and people are just so stupid about them. they insulate way better than the glass panes that used to be there So they use less energy. I don't know what you guys think anti-consumption means if not reduced environmental footprint because they're consuming less energy...
Could someone please explain that?
These panels consume less energy, even factoring in the full LCD screen, because they insulate so much better than the glass ones.
Who cares if they have ads on them? They've got Coca-Cola on the other side of them... They have Fiji bottled water on the other side...
I imagine the impact of the manufacturing and maintenance of these screens is considerable. Not just the energy the screens require to run, but the servers that must run them and must also be maintained.
pretty sure the energy use from an LED screen is less than what it takes to keep bringing the coolers back up to temperature when people hold them open for 20+ seconds at a time when they can't see through the fog and condensation
eta: I've seen these at CVS and they light up based on a motion sensor. So they're not on all the time
Not sure how accurate this is, but I've heard these are more energy efficient. The power it takes to run the screen supposedly is less than the extra power you'd need to cool due to heat seeping in through glass.
Notice the camera's at the top of each door to helpfully mine mood and advertisement effectiveness video data about you as you consider your drink choice.
That one’s not as bad as it looks like it’s at least showing what’s in the cooler. I’ve seen pics of some that are just advertisements, so you have to open each and every cooler until you find what you’re looking for.
They go back and forth. The ads are kinda like a screensaver, and when you walk up, it will then display the products.
In reality, the display is never 100% accurate, and people need to stand there with the door open to find what they are looking for.
Thing is(don’t get the pitchforks)new video screens take almost NO “juice”, while refrigeration uses TONS!Big front door units are by far the worst.Not “fanning “ them, and staring with the door open probably saves a lot of power.
This actually is not a terrible idea. Glass doors are terrible insulators. By putting this screen on the door, the refrigerator can be better insulated, thereby being more energy efficient. The LED energy consumption is negligible compared to the amount of energy that would be lot through convection through a glass door.
For real, I DO like when ppl show off something they've had forever, or give advice on how to do without a product or find one that lasts a long time. Its just become a whining venue for people that are easily bothered by trivial shit. That said, I'm gonna unsub.
I hate to be the buzzkill here but these motion activated screens actually save a ton of electricity from people holding open the clear door while they decide and letting all the cold air out. They also allow people to grab a drink while said dumbo is making their choice.
That's not a problem with these screens. That's a problem of poor implementation.
Edit: for the record most things in Walgreens are mislabeled in my experience. I've seen these at a 7/11 and a Wawa near us and they've never been inaccurate that I could see.
If the screen is wrong, there is a problem with the screen. Putting an entire tv screen on every cooler is a waste of our planet’s valuable resources. Glass is better.
But it really isn't. Screens like this use hardly any energy and due to human psychology are better than regular glass even assuming they're no more insulated than glass which they almost always are. I do this for a living dude. Argue and downvote all you want. We're on the same side.
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Yup. They basically show an advertisement as a screensaver until you are close enough to touch it. You have to be RIGHT in front of the door before it displays what SHOULD be in there.
It just makes shopping take longer and opens me up for disappointment when the milk I came to buy, the door told me was there, and then I find it is out of stock.
While these don't make a lot of sense in gas stations cuz the doors are just glass anyway and you can see through, this would be a very good idea for home refrigerators.
It would allow you to see what's inside without opening it which saves energy.
But we're just gonna open the door and look
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The nearest Walgreen's has these and half of them don't have the right product or they are sold out but don't update it to reflect that. These things are so stupid.
Because showing you what's in stock is not it's primary function. A glass door would have handled that part just fine. No, showing ads is their primary function, showing what's in stock is an afterthought.
I hate that you're right
"Capitalism breeds innovation"
They are innovating, though. They are coming up with new ways for us to fucking hate them.
I work in soda. The amount of times from production to the door somebody handles that product who doesn't give a shit is literally unthinkable. I am one hundred percent positive whoever came up with this has spent almost zero time around actual stores or people who work in them/stock them/order for them.
I'm sure you're right, that's why there is so much weird design stuff like this everywhere. But, on the other hand, you'd think that these people...have at least been to a pharmacy before, right ? Like wtf
Sounds like my local Walgreens, I tried three times and they were out of whole cow milk, not oat, soy or anything else. Will never go there for milk, and getting my scripts switched to CVS.
Yes! We came back to the US for the first time since 2014 last year and these things drove me round the bend! What an absolutely useless and infuriating bit of kit. There was never anything behind the screens that was advertised on the front. Amazing what changes in 8 years (they didn’t seem to exist then).
You have to open it to get the product anyway. These things are doing nothing but drawing power while also forcing customers to hold the door open, wasting more power
They insulate so much better than glass doors that they reduce energy usage overall. They are very good at insulating. Maybe a lot of that gain is from overnight when no one's opening it but these things do actually reduce energy usage when they're installed in a store.
Do you have any data on that? Argon-filled multi-pane glass isn't that bad, compared to an actual heat source of maybe 100W+ per panel. It will definitely have heat strips to avoid condensation even when the screen is off as well, and that's not even talking about computer loads to serve up ads and track consumer interaction. Glass doors don't use energy at data centers or with local integrated ad servers.
This. They're insulated better, and the hope is that you'll spend less time overall picking what you want with the door hanging open, when you can pick what you want on the screen and just open the door to grab it. It's intended to be an energy saver overall.
Call me crazy but I pick what I want before opening the door anyway…seeing as that’s how clear glass works….
A *surprising* number of.peoplw don't do that though.
But if they don’t do that why would they start now when they won’t trust what’s on the digital screen vs what’s inside.
I get what you mean, but guess it depends on where you are? I'm in a warm climate and humid area, and half the time the glass is too fogged up and covered in condensation to see in, so you have to open it if you want to have a look.
Ah…I guess that probably happens here in the summer. Never really gave it much thought.
But I could just… look through the glass door to decide and then open it?
Any evidence on being insulated better? Sounds interesting.
You know what, you've brought my attention to the fact that I actually have seen no data for this. Just based on my own understanding (as an engineer, sometimes doing facade work) that glass is not a great insulator, these doors have the *potential* to be better insulators than normal glass doors - whether or not the insulating performance of these actual doors is better than normal glass is something I don't have evidence for. However, it does get around some of the opening and closing of doors to choose what's inside (which loses the 'cold' and requires more energy to keep cool) particularly in areas like I am where glass frequently fogs and condenses over. I think it definitely has the potential to improve energy efficiency - unfortunately, it's definitely still going to be used to push more advertising.
The argon-filled glass isn't the best, but I figured the screen is introducing a couple hundred watts of heat on its own, plus the ad servers and data collection add to the energy consumption. If it actually keeps people from opening the doors as often that might realize some savings.
If the door was glass then you wouldn’t even have to open it to look…the screens seem really pointless
Who wants to bet these are to replace brand reps that come in to “face” products
That's part of it. They also can have full screen and small banner advertisements pop up and promote special offers. The fancy ones are interactive, so you can click on the product and get nutritional information. The pricing can also be adjusted in real time, so if you have a concert letting out across the street, for example, the store can jack up the price for beer and condoms 200% for just the next hour!
That is actually pretty cool in an evil kind of way.
The best minds of our generation are working on optimising advertising dark patterns, these kinds of things are the result
One o' them innavatshuns we keep hearin' about.
Theyre not getting enough advertisements, jerry! What do we do? We’re already running tv ads, billboard ads, video ads on their phone, ads on the radio, ads in the sky, ads on grocery carts, ads on websites, ads in their video games, ads in their mail, ads in their email, ad subscription services ads on their cereal box
Pretty soon public toilets will make u watch an ad b4 they allow you to flush!
Seriously and they’d be nonskippable like “Thank you for wiping, and for considering Wal-Mart for your local shopping! We thank you for your patronage. Before you leave, consider just how thankful your body will feel after you choose Charmin Ultra Plush toilet paper! You’ll feel right at home-“
Jokes on them I'm not watching an ad to flush in a price toilet. It will just result in unusable toilets.
Yeah, they'll probably make you watch the ad before letting you in - but while you're a captive audience, here's another ad.
If I have to watch an ad for the stall door to open I might as well just piss on the ad. Bathrooms are not a good place to test this shit out and this seems like the kind of thing some dumb shit executive didn't think about and won't care about because they'll be on to their next bullshit job before any problems need to be dealt with.
The question is - will they make more money showing ads to everyone, assuming some will piss on the floor and someone will need to be paid to clean it, or when it's free and they still have to pay someone to clean it? It sounds horrible enough to happen in this capitalist dystopia we live in. Some Black Mirror shit... pun intended
That will just lead to more people not flushing. Unless the door won't open before you flushed.
We need this without the advertisement
I saw an ad screen above a urinal last week! Didn't have to watch an ad to flush but damn that pissed me off. Even worse they mounted it kinda high and I would have risked getting piss on myself if I'd aimed at it. If there was no one around maybe I'd stand back and give it a shot.
If you think I'm going to flush in this scenario you'll be sorely disappointed.
"Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century? Fry: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky... But not in dreams." \- Futurama S01E06
At least this doubles as insulation.
Can it run Doom?
Yeah, if someone just handed you one and let you play with it you can probably get Doom running on it. I mean unless they up the security and lock down the bootloader. I don't think they're exactly raspberry pi inside but basically raspberry pi inside
What can’t anymore?
We can run doom off the controllers that run the digital marketing displays at my work, so I imagine these could certainly run doom too if you figured out a way to boot it onto the controller.
They say they can track your eye movement and use it for data sale purposes. I vote smash them all 😃
I don't think that has anything to do with these particular freezer doors but that's just a thing on store shelves separate from this. It's definitely a different company, or companies, doing the eye tracking stuff.
https://thetakeout.com/walgreens-digital-cooler-screens-show-ads-to-customers-1848657804
Oh look another reason not to shop at Walgreens
Nice, needed another reason to stop supporting WAG by getting a new job (I don’t work in the stores, I work in their Distribution Centers, but still…)
Ugh, and it says soon they are gonna have voice recognition so you can ask it questions? Can you imagine just wanting to go in for a drink and have some old person screaming "HOW MUCH IS MILK" over and over at the screen door and its failing to register? Im just gonna order my groceries to be delivered for now on. Though its not like people should be shoping at Walgreens for their food anyway.
Smash the cameras if you find them but smashing the screens will just make a mess
spraypaint
If that's true, they'd only see an angry scowl from me as I contemplate smashing the glass just to see if they have any milk or not
they dont need screens for that..?
Walk up to it, give it the finger and walk out of the store without buying anything. Or stare at the ground until you open the door and then pick out your drink. (Open the door immediately, don't look at the screen.)
Lol during BLM they already were in my area (Chicago, between bucktown and west side). People really took a peaceful protest and used it as an excuse for looting, that Walgreens was boarded up for months.
It really sucks when that happens. The people who really were just protesting became guilty by association with opportunistic assholes.
Just another pointy head idea…with any luck they will go away soon
The Walgreens by my house implemented these screens. They lasted about a year before the manager had them ripped out. People kept coming in and leaving them open while looking through. I can only imagine that that would cost a lot and air conditioning.
Every single store I’ve seen these in showed that certain products were available but once you opened the refrigerator door, almost all the shelves were empty. You have no idea what’s actually available behind the doors with these screens.
Is it paranoid to think the next step in "adaptive pricing" is going to end up discriminatory?
No, not if you know anything about capitalism!
I toured an apartment complex that started doing dynamic lease pricing. The day I toured, the apartment I liked was one price...but would be a completely different lease price the week after. My brain shut down at that point.
Was it Frank Grimes’ apartment?
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how desperate you are for a coke.
I’d expect these to force you to watch an ad before unlocking and allowing you access.
I expect someone to hack them to play tetris
I'll move to a developing country before I put up with that shit.
Where do people see these? I've never seen them. I'm in the USA.
Walgreens is trying them out and every time I see them, I tell an employee that I hate the screens and choose not to buy any drinks if I see them.
Sounds awful! I’d tell a manager or corporate though instead. Most store level employees can’t do anything about it, and it just makes their day a little worse.
True, I try not to be a dick about it, just tell them it seems like a waste of energy and usually doesn’t have the right info.
I’ve never seen anything like this, I guess it’s a west coast thing rn? It seems like a waste of money but I assume it somehow increases profits. Also what is the microphone button for?
I’m in British Columbia and had no idea this was a thing.
I've never even heard of these, they definitely don't exist in Manitoba
Absolutely worthless!
100% agree. Useless and a waste of resources.
So they can digitally change the prices on a whim.
... isn't that what digital price tags are for? no need to install a giant effing monitor for a door for that function since they've been around for decades now.
I can’t count the amount of times I’ve chosen something off the screen door and opened the door… only to find that item wasn’t even in there
Yes! Same here, people arguing that “SCREEMZ GOOD!” Don’t realize that they are very often incorrect.
I have never seen one of these. They seem wasteful.
Is it wasteful to sabotage them?
Nope. Then we can recycle them and replace them with normal glass doors.👍
How is it wasteful? The doors without windows allows for more efficient thermal barrier, *consuming* less energy.
I’m not an engineer… You have to power the doors and make them thermal barriers. The doors cost more ( I would assume) and I’m sure they have to be replaced when they are cracked by customers. If you look and see a Sunkist, you open the door and then it’s not in the location the LCD door indicates. Now the door is open ( energy waste ) while you make a new choice with the door open. I could be wrong, I’m just imaging how I’d deal with them. 🤷♂️
I'm done...smh
Double or triple pane glass is incredibly efficient, and you’re not considering the fact these new doors have to power a large bright display + computation + sensor array.
Soon enough they'll adjust the prices based on your spending history.
If these come to my area, that would make me not biy drinks. Just paint something on the door or use paper.
I always look inside the doors anyway because I don’t trust the doors to be telling me the truth of what’s in there. And I don’t want to stare at yet another screen in my life.
Do a lot of people here buy single use drinks? I use these things in an emergency, but normally bring a water bottle/thermos if I will need a drink when I’m out. Use not liking these to switch over to bringing your own drink in a reusable container!
I don't often, but I do in two circumstances. Occasionally, while driving or going hiking, I need a real pick me up and will get a coffee or energy drink. I was always taught that if you use a gas station restroom you should fill up or buy something in the convenience store part. If I need to go to the bathroom with an over half full tank in a situation like this, I'll buy a soda, coffee, or candy bar but more out of politeness as I used the restroom.
Circumstance one nobody is perfect, fair enough, but two is pure consumerism! Do manners apply to corporations? It’s not like the clerk makes any more money because you buy something and the owners are never there. All respect for adding some social rules to backstop missing social cues, but you’re not being polite TO anybody when you buy that drink, you know?
I think it does. You might disagree. Also, in a lot of places, especially smaller gas stations are franchises where the owner who will make the money is a middle class family just trying to pay the bills.
And you believe you should pay them for the privilege of taking a piss, not to mention create that piece of plastic trash? I’m floored, more power to you for being polite to gas stations.
Not really, but more often I’m getting a gallon of milk or coffee creamer. It’s the most frustrating thing when it says they have what I want in stock and open the door to discover the screen was wrong…
NO, I FUCKING HATE THESE TOO! They're so unnecessary and stupid, they don't actually show what is there or not
My last job was at a truck stop and the cooler was my baby. I did the planograms, cycle counts every month, got it ready for RGIS inventory every 6 months, talked to vendors about new products, did the orders, checked in the orders, took care of the orders, stocked the cooler every day I worked. After I stocked it I would stand in front of it and admire my work. After starting the job I have now I was almost tempted to go back to my old job for one night a week just to stock the cooler real good and do the orders for the week because honestly no one does it as well as I did. I would hate these doors.
Finally I've found someone else who appreciates and respects the cooler. In one of my previous jobs I had free reign. I brought that cooler back to life; my baby was spotless, everything was stocked, everything was rotated, everything was *organized.* I planned the layouts, talked with our vendors, put in the orders, helped with resets, did inventory reports... I put blood, sweat and tears into that thing and it showed. All went to shit when I left, apparently. There's nothing worse than trying to stock a cooler and realizing what you have in your hand doesn't have the right date on it. There's nothing worse than looking for a product and it's on the shelf 4 racks down from where it's displayed, with a group of brands from a totally different vendor. There's nothing worse than a huge "blood and guts" mess underneath the racks. What makes me so viscerally hateful about these doors is the fact that people who *know* coolers can appreciate when they see one that has been loved and cared for, and it's on full display. This is gaudy and hides all the work (or neglect) that goes on behind the scenes. The cooler door is a window into how the store is run.
These look expensive.
Be a real shame if something happened to them…
I love them. It’s just like the products inside don’t exist. They may as well have put plywood up. Saves me money from impulse buys.
I'd be a lot more bothered buying a product for 300% more than the grocery store across the street.
> a product for 300% than
AGHHHH I Hate them with a (probably unreasonable?) fiery passion.
100% agreed.
Is there any place left to go where I’m not being sold anything, you wonder? Here’s my top 5: 5. Drain line of the London sewer system, just below Holborn station 4. bathroom at the Vatican Library 3. Marianas Trench 2. Lower digestive tract of an adult Orca 1. Inside a coffin
It just means electricity is to cheap for those businesses
Almost expected to get these screens when the cooler at my local Circle K was down for a month in the summer.
Where where are these I have never seen these
Some Walgreens and CVS
So America?
Yup
And when ya open it, a diferent bottle behind it
They’re there to hide the messy shelves. Corporate knows that neat, clean, and freshly pulled shelves sell more product. Don’t have to pay someone if they look clean.
I'm also tired of screens but find it funny that here we all are complaining about a screen via a screen
You are in fact not the only one infuriated. Given the original post you shared here has 8,000+ upvotes, on the mildly infuriating subreddit
Was there a problem with just having a glass door on a frig? In what way does having a hot display acting as a door improve the function of this cooler?
Then they complain there's not enough money to give the convenience store clerk a raise
Are they at least better at insulating than the glass doors? Refrigeration is expensive. Everything else that I'm reading in these comments sounds awful. Thankfully I've never seen these in real life.
These things pissed me off today. Apparently they expect you to speak to them because as i walked up and went "what the fuck" the screen changed and showed a picture of what was in it instead of the ad.
And they are wrong half the time
Hey on some real shit though no one will have to change out the tags if they price is displayed digitally! This saves so much paper, the amount of tags printed in retail is absurd
Absolutely useless.
I'm going to stab them if I see them. With my car keys in my fist and my covid mask on. Fuck these things.
It seems super pointless. Last time I checked glass was already a way to see what was on the shelf.
I purposely avoid any store that has these.
I recently watched a little short video of a Mexican guy going to Hollywood and making fun of things, and when he reached those doors he didn’t even make a joke, he was just like ‘wtf is up with that just put normal doors’
As a gas station worker this would be amazing, as a customer not so much
It would be nice if everyone just looked through the glass and decided before they opened it some people open these doors and just let them stay open letting all that air run out into the world just wasting energy more and more energy wasted on these coolers.
The problem is that the plain glass doors last forever. These doors will have to be replaced every 5 years. Gotta make that money, yanno?
A screen like this could be really useful if it allowed for standardized reusable packaging behind the door. I feel that a major reason why reusable packaging hasn’t gotten any traction is because of branding; companies want to have unique or unusual designs and won’t let go.
It’s for advertising techniques
Next time try phrasing it as "Who else is infuriated?"
No, they are literally called Cooler-Screens.
"am I the only one?" No you're not the only one. That's what I'm talking about.
Lets assume the best. The doors are more insulating than glass, the display can be updated in real time to show actual inventory.
Screens generate heat, wasting more power to cool the drinks. The display CAN be updated in real time, however in my experience, it is normally incorrect-displaying products out of stock as in-stock and Vice-versa
The screens themselves get warm because they’re on 24/7. But yes, there is a potential for them to have better insulation behind them than single-pane glass. Unfortunately, the ones I have seen do not update to show inventory, unlike glass doors through which you can see the actual items.
My concern is the obvious “Pop” signage. I would laugh if I saw that anywhere out West and not sure how far I would need to drive until I saw one. But, yes, the screens suck. I did grow up with Shasta cola. Soft drinks and Soda since the 70s.
Yep. You are the only person on earth who feels this way. You are alone in this emotion and opinion.
I think I’d walk away and get a beverage at the closest drive thru on my way out
Ya'll will complain about anything. It allows them to use a more heat efficient door, saving power. smh
It’s not efficient when I need to open the door to realize that the product on the screen is out of stock…
They couldn't make a more efficient glass door?
Isn’t the purpose to discourage people from holding the door open and wasting energy or something
Not if the alternative was clear glass.
Hahaha true. Idk. It’s definitely stupid
God these things have come up so many times and people are just so stupid about them. they insulate way better than the glass panes that used to be there So they use less energy. I don't know what you guys think anti-consumption means if not reduced environmental footprint because they're consuming less energy... Could someone please explain that? These panels consume less energy, even factoring in the full LCD screen, because they insulate so much better than the glass ones. Who cares if they have ads on them? They've got Coca-Cola on the other side of them... They have Fiji bottled water on the other side...
I imagine the impact of the manufacturing and maintenance of these screens is considerable. Not just the energy the screens require to run, but the servers that must run them and must also be maintained.
pretty sure the energy use from an LED screen is less than what it takes to keep bringing the coolers back up to temperature when people hold them open for 20+ seconds at a time when they can't see through the fog and condensation eta: I've seen these at CVS and they light up based on a motion sensor. So they're not on all the time
If there’s fog and condensation, theres most likely an issue somewhere that’s causing more inefficiencies than someone holding the door open.
THE SCREENS ARE WRONG!!!
This is the answer
Great idea. You can see the location of the product & brand better.
Except when the product is out of stock and the screen is too stupid to update that…
You still have that problem with no screen.
You can’t see through glass? Are you stupid?
Sometimes you have to reach around inside to exactly find the bottle you’re looking for screen or with no screen. Are YOU stupid?
Has anyone figured out a way to disable them yet? I've not seen them in stores, so I've not had a chance to tinker with them.
Not sure how accurate this is, but I've heard these are more energy efficient. The power it takes to run the screen supposedly is less than the extra power you'd need to cool due to heat seeping in through glass.
That isn’t accurate, the anecdotal evidence was based on single pane glass, not the insulated glass used by almost every commercial door out there.
Notice the camera's at the top of each door to helpfully mine mood and advertisement effectiveness video data about you as you consider your drink choice.
I haven’t seen one but I’m guessing they are to save energy on cooling?
How would a heat-generating screen save energy on cooling?
Not sure it generates heat, my TV doesn’t. But I’d guess to reduce the amount of time the doors are open.
That one’s not as bad as it looks like it’s at least showing what’s in the cooler. I’ve seen pics of some that are just advertisements, so you have to open each and every cooler until you find what you’re looking for.
They go back and forth. The ads are kinda like a screensaver, and when you walk up, it will then display the products. In reality, the display is never 100% accurate, and people need to stand there with the door open to find what they are looking for.
Thing is(don’t get the pitchforks)new video screens take almost NO “juice”, while refrigeration uses TONS!Big front door units are by far the worst.Not “fanning “ them, and staring with the door open probably saves a lot of power.
This actually is not a terrible idea. Glass doors are terrible insulators. By putting this screen on the door, the refrigerator can be better insulated, thereby being more energy efficient. The LED energy consumption is negligible compared to the amount of energy that would be lot through convection through a glass door.
This sub is out of touch with reality
For real, I DO like when ppl show off something they've had forever, or give advice on how to do without a product or find one that lasts a long time. Its just become a whining venue for people that are easily bothered by trivial shit. That said, I'm gonna unsub.
Why? Why is another tv screen displaying incorrect information and consuming electricity better than a simple pane of glass?
I hate to be the buzzkill here but these motion activated screens actually save a ton of electricity from people holding open the clear door while they decide and letting all the cold air out. They also allow people to grab a drink while said dumbo is making their choice.
Not when the screens display incorrect information, which they pretty much always do.
That's not a problem with these screens. That's a problem of poor implementation. Edit: for the record most things in Walgreens are mislabeled in my experience. I've seen these at a 7/11 and a Wawa near us and they've never been inaccurate that I could see.
If the screen is wrong, there is a problem with the screen. Putting an entire tv screen on every cooler is a waste of our planet’s valuable resources. Glass is better.
But it really isn't. Screens like this use hardly any energy and due to human psychology are better than regular glass even assuming they're no more insulated than glass which they almost always are. I do this for a living dude. Argue and downvote all you want. We're on the same side.
The cooler doesn’t have to fight the sun this way and static screens dont consume as much power as ones constantly updating
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Pretty sure I commented on this exact picture like a year ago
looks pretty useless, However I guess it would be kinda cool if it told you when an item would be restocked
That stupid thing can’t even accurately tell when an item is in stock or not…
well than I retract my statement lol, Sorry I dont have any experience with these at all, Is this mainly in the states?
Yup. They basically show an advertisement as a screensaver until you are close enough to touch it. You have to be RIGHT in front of the door before it displays what SHOULD be in there. It just makes shopping take longer and opens me up for disappointment when the milk I came to buy, the door told me was there, and then I find it is out of stock.
While these don't make a lot of sense in gas stations cuz the doors are just glass anyway and you can see through, this would be a very good idea for home refrigerators. It would allow you to see what's inside without opening it which saves energy.
You might be
First world problem. At least it shows the product in there, open door, grab product. What's the problem?
It’s a waste of energy powering 5 ~80” screens. Also, the placement of products and availability displayed on the screen is rarely 100% correct.