US retailer sued for $200m by digital signage supplier

By AV Magazine in Digital Signage and DOOH, Retail, US&Canada June 12, 2023 0

Cooler Screens has filed an action alleging that pharmacy store chain Walgreens reneged on an agreement to roll out ‘smart’ LCD chiller doors across 2,500 stores.

A company that has been building a retail media network based on ‘smart’ transparent LCD chiller doors has taken out a $200m lawsuit against US pharmacy store chain Walgreens in a contract dispute.

Cooler Screens has filed an action in an Illinois state court, alleging that Walgreens reneged on a roll-out agreement that would involve the screens being deployed in 2,500 stores across the US.

The roll-out had started in 2018, following a successful pilot project, but was halted after Roz Brewer took over as Walgreen’s chief executive in 2021, and saw the screens in situ.

Walgreens terminated the agreement in February and wants Cooler Screens to uninstall every transparent LCD door – which display product information and adverts – from its stores.

“After visiting stores in which ‘smart door’s had been installed, Brewer decided that she did not like the way they looked, purportedly comparing the screens to ‘Vegas’ in a derogatory way,” Cooler Screens argued in its legal filing, according to a report in Sixteen:Nine.

It is also alleged that Walgreens fabricated reasons to terminate the contract, including flickering images, inaccurate inventory displays and electrical issues. Cooler Screens says any issues were the result of “old and outdated” refrigerators and freezers at Walgreens.

Cooler Screens said it spent $45m 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, according to a Bloomberg report in Chicago Business.

Jim Cohn, senior director for global corporate communications at Walgreens Boots Alliance, said in a statement: “We are disappointed that Cooler Screens is falsely claiming that anything other than their failure to perform was the basis for the termination of our contractual relationship.”

“The claims and allegations in Cooler Screens’ complaint are baseless and unfounded. Cooler Screens failed to meet its contractual obligations.”

Cooler Screens’ co-founder, Greg Wasson, was Walgreens’ chief executive from 2009 to 2014, and worked for the company for 30 years.