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Walgreens in $200 million legal battle over faulty cooler smart screens

Flickering, glitchy displays has led to costly lawsuits between Walgreens and CoolerX

[Photo: CoolerX]

Walgreens’ attempt to modernize its coolers with futuristic digital signage displays back in 2020 has led to the chain to become involved in a costly legal battle. Over four years ago, Walgreens entered into a contract with CoolerX (formerly Cooler Screens), a start-up that specializes in retail displays. The agreement saw the convenience store chain replace its transparent glass cooler doors with CoolerX digital screens that showcased the cooler’s contents and pricing, as well as scan and retain the shopping habits of consumers.

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Unfortunately, things did not go as planned, with Walgreens claiming that the displays were glitchy at best and dangerous at worst, often showing incorrect information, flickering on and off, and in at least one instance, catching fire. According to a report by Bloomberg, this was enough to lead Walgreens to attempt an early termination of its 10-year contract with CoolerX. In response, CoolerX countered with a $200 million breach of contract lawsuit. Bloomberg reports that CoolerX went so far as to intentionally terminate service to 100 Walgreens locations, resulting in dead displays that completely obscure the contents of coolers.

Walgreens completed the complete removal of CoolerX screens from its locations by August of last year, but the legal battle does not appear to be ending anytime soon.

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