Sometimes "smart" technology leads to some really dumb problems. Walgreens is learning this lesson the hard way — to the tune of $200 million.
The drugstore chain's ill-fated experiment with high-tech refrigerator doors over the last few years has led to an acrimonious lawsuit, in which the makers of the door, Cooler Screens Inc., have sued Walgreens for breach of contract.
Walgreens' use agreement with the fridge-door screen company, which began in 2018, was continually plagued with technological issues, leading to growing frustration from customers and store employees alike when screens went blank.
Customers could no longer see where the Coke and Red Bull and Hot Pockets and Heineken sat, and either assumed the fridges were out of order or found themselves rummaging through one by one. Some staffers pasted pieces of paper on the opaque screens that read, for example, 'assorted sports drinks & coffee.' Others filed service requests online with Cooler Screens, which had been marking all incoming complaints as resolved without fixing anything.
The doors were supposed to help catch customers' eyes by playing ads on the screens when someone walked by. The doors were also pitched as an easy way to push "dynamic pricing," where stores could charge more for items based on demand (such as raising prices on drinks on a hot day).
The ad revenue and inventory/pricing plans didn't pan out, to say the least. And that's not all.
These internet-connected fridge panels, developed by a Chicago startup called Cooler Screens Inc., frequently flickered, crashed or showed the wrong products. Every so often, they caught fire.
Walgreens grew so dissatisfied that it began to search for a way out of the contract — to no avail. The issues with the doors grew worse, reaching a climax with the vendor suing Walgreens in 2023:
When a set of fridges went dark at a Walgreens in Joliet, Illinois, in early 2024, an employee taped photos of the interior shelves to the exterior of each blanked-out display.
In a viral Reddit post showing the scene, a customer joked: 'If only there was some other technology that would let us see what's in there'
You know … like GLASS.
Today, Walgreens is in the process of removing the electronic doors despite the ongoing lawsuit. A reported $50-million worth of them are sitting in a Texas warehouse. It has countersued for monetary damages.
Heed the cautionary tale of Walgreens. "Smarter" isn't always better.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
