this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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[–] faceless 115 points 10 months ago (8 children)

why do they have doors with screens telling you what's behind the door when they could just have glass

[–] SGG 118 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Cameras above each door to gather data.

Ads on the doors.

Because EVERY SINGLE SQUARE INCH OF EVERY SURFACE MUST MAKE PROFIT.

I would complain and stop shopping there, and encourage others to complain as well. Hell leave the doors propped open to help people see what's inside, even though it'll run up their electricity bill and spoil the contents. Aslo remember to bring in one of those window-cracker car safety things and have a go at breaking the screens if you want to be even more rebellious.

[–] ocassionallyaduck 52 points 10 months ago

I read about this, and it's the ads. Full wall animated ads.

I also instantly predicted this obvious outcome. And hope it happens go any place that installs them. Fuck billboards invading every inch of our lives.

[–] SlopppyEngineer 23 points 10 months ago

“We have determined that we’ll be able to fill 80% of the user’s display with advertising before inducing seizures” ~Nolan Sorrento, Ready Player One

[–] riodoro1 48 points 10 months ago

To kill the planet faster you dummy.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago

So they can show ads for 2 minutes, and whats actually behind the glass for about 5 seconds.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Now you don’t have to make sure everything is stocked neatly. But I think they are bullshit and will not buy from them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I thought. If you change where the products are, or replace the products wkth different products. You can just keep it updated and change it over. But then I thought. Well, if you're replacing the products, then you've got the door open. Then it's literally no extra effort to just replace a piece of paper.

Whereas here, you'd actually have to change it from a PC, and make sure you put it all in the right place.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It allows them to control the appearance and impression of the products more. A huge amount of store design is based around making the stuff appealing and thus increasing the chance you buy it.

Hence the huge pyramids of apples or the bountiful overflowing stock of vegetables. They’ll generally not even sell a half of what they end up stocking, but if they just stocked what people were likely to buy the shelves would look barren and off putting, and people may be less likely to come back there.

Even if a glass door on these fridges was perfectly functional and arguably better from the average person’s point of view, the screens give the marketing team more opportunities to spin their products. The goal of a store is not to provide you with what you want and need, but to convince you that you want and need things you don’t actually.

[–] SendMePhotos 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I wish they'd realize that many people don't give that much of a shit. Not that they don't give a shit, they give a shit... But just not as much as they think.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

You say that but in theory the numbers disagree cause theyre still spending on it

[–] iamtrashman1312 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

For real, these digital displays never change what I went in there to get. I look for the section labeled with the thing I want, I get it, I pay, I leave. Not once have I gone "damn that fake Sprite covered in fake condensation looks so refreshing, I think I'll get that instead."

I guess it has to work on some level though, or those no way they'd be paying for those instead of simple panes of glass

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's subtle. No one is looking at the fake condensation covered sprite and saying "aw man, this one looks so much more refreshing!" It's all happening behind the scenes. You gravitate towards the one well lit, stacked up so that it's easy to grab. Easy to see labels.

The insides of coolers are kinda gross looking if you let even a little bit of maintenance slip. Frost, condensation on the inside, weird rollers that don't like to put the label outward if it wasn't stocked properly. Shitty florescent lights. Being able to eliminate that just gives the store a lot more control over the all-critical first impression.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

The CEO is doing a favour for one of their friends who is the CEO of the display door manufacturing company

they're not actually worth it, any potential benefits are outweighed by the cost and mainenance of the massive displays and the software needed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Better insulation; what others are saying is just what SEOs will do with it once implemented but AFAIK the main purpose is more efficient refrigeration.

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 10 months ago (3 children)

If only there was some kind of transparent material we could make freezer doors out of so you could see what was in them.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately this isn't Star Trek.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

ironically, transparent aluminum is real

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah, we call it "ruby" for red, "sapphire" for not-red, and more generally "corundum"

[–] PilferJynx 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Then how would you be able to hide a camera for facial recognition?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Or display ads on the screen to eke out a little extra cash?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Most people see the eye scanner stuff in Minority Report and recoil in horror. I see it and I'm like "hell yeah. Let me buy shit without doing anything but grabbing the thing and leaving."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like you have a high level of financial stability and trust in the State to not blacklist your ~~wallet~~ eyeball

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

To be entirely fair, the glass doors are terrible for refrigeration efficiency because the glass is far less insulated than the door with the screen is. It might actually save electricity by powering a screen that shows a picture of the product over a insulated door than just having a glass door.

This implementation looks ugly as heck of course but if there's a big enough energy efficiency gain I suppose it might be worth the trade off

[–] AnUnusualRelic 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You can make insulated glass doors fairly easily. Just sandwich a gas between layers of glass. Look at any modern window for an example.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Still not as insulating as a thick door with the manufacturer's choice of insulation material. Double/triple pane glass is far better than a single pane window but a window is still a window

[–] [email protected] 71 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Because glass was too complicated.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It's so they can use facial recognition to determine which products you are most interested in

[–] Endmaker 23 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They can simply count which products are being sold more / run out of stock more quickly.

(But I get that they probably bought into the hype of AI)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It doesn't store your personal face but it can detect what you are most interested in buying giving corporations better data on how products should be priced. I still think it's gross

[–] Metans 12 points 10 months ago

how products should be priced

So grimace and recoil in horror at everything, got it

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

More importantly, it gives them demographic information (sex, age, race, etc). Can’t get that from just sales figures.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Get that good surge pricing going for everything.

You look drunk? Prices go up 30% while they flash booze ads at you.

Stoned? Cheetos are 250%. Two giddy teenagers looking for condoms? Price them sky high motherfucker!!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

The company apparently uses AI to process faces to determine gender, approximate age and mood in order to try and figure out which products the person might want.

I learned this while trying to find tech specs for uhhh… research purposes.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

They don't need a screen for that tho

[–] Gradually_Adjusting 52 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Where are these, so I can never see them in person

[–] [email protected] 80 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Walgreens has them installed in 700 stores because a previous ceo signed a deal with a company that provided them.

The CEO of the company providing them? Was also a previous, different CEO of Walgreens. Sure looks like a buddy did another buddies startup a favor, likely for a kickback.

The current Walgreens CEO canceled them, and is being sued for it.

Its walgreens CEOs all the way down.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

sounds about right, no one actually thinks this is a good idea, at least not after seeing one of them installed.

it's just money laundering or whatever the technically correct term is

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

aren't these the people who bought theranos crap too

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

as socrates once put it:

the meat riding is insane

[–] TheBat 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

hahaha.... babe.... us.... we are right here, yeah///

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[–] midori 40 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago

Plot twist: that's not paper

[–] Ghostalmedia 27 points 10 months ago

This is 100% what those new transparent OLEDs will be used for.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

The good news is one they're replaced if you can score a working unit for little to free it'll make a awesome TTRPG table.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Any store installing that crap (it fortunately hasn't arrived in my country yet) will lose me as a customer. I know it won't hurt them, but I'm not dealing with shit like that.

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