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As The New York Times reports, a company called Automated Media Services has developed TV screens that can be clipped to supermarket shelves. And what will be showing on those tiny screens? You guessed it: endless loops of the same commercials for cereal or soup or shampoo.
More after the jump.
Despite the proliferation of flashing screens everywhere from airport gates to the backseats of taxicabs, advertisers are still not happy. They want to be right there by your side at the precise moment when you're weighing the choice between, say, Prego and Ragu, and access to that advertising sweet spot is what 3GTV is promising.
AMS is testing its Lilliputian TVs this summer at nine supermarkets in Maryland and Virginia. One enthusiastic store executive was quoted as saying that 3GTV could "transform the shopper experience."
Presumably he means for the better, though the image of aisle after aisle of picture-perfect TV clones hawking everything from Listerine to Lunchables may just have some of us longing for the day when the only broadcast in our local A&P was, "Clean up on aisle 11."
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6-18-2010 @7:03PM M said... I dread those. Super Wal-Mart already has tvs overhead that repeatedly alternate between music videos and videos of people chirping "Buy XYZ! Pick it up in the deli today and make dinner a snap!"
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6-20-2010 @5:12PM Al Schrader said... They did this in the movie "Blade Runner" a long time ago.
I suggest save the thousands it cost to equip the store with those, and lower the prices. People are smart. They already know what to buy....Al-
6-18-2010 @9:56PM Francis said... Are you sure this is recent? I live in the Philippines, and people here have already been seeing video advertisements in supermarket shelves since at least 3 years ago. I mean, the technology has been there since the first portable video player (what, like in the late 90s?).
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6-19-2010 @2:07AM ToryAnn said... I don't think it's recent at all! We've had these in our Wal-Marts for a while now.
6-18-2010 @8:18PM Bean Reel said... Those Mo-Fo's are all over my "improved" Wal-Mart SuperCenter. It was much easier to ignore them overhead -- now my kids look like zombies after an extended shopping trip.
"Improved" my fat, white, hiney.
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6-18-2010 @8:33PM KH said... I would shop elsewhere, even someplace more expensive. I absolutely can't stand flashing screens -- which is why I totally ignore anything anywhere that flashes, especially on the internet. Want my business? Try being subtle.
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6-20-2010 @7:59PM Sammy said...
which is why I totally ignore anything anywhere that flashes"
I so hope that does not include fire trucks, ambulances, polie cars, traffic signls, etc.
6-18-2010 @8:34PM bacontaco said... I already run into those little plastic ads that stick out with my cart "accidentally." These will be no different if / when I come across them.
"Sorry - I didn't see it there. I was too busy trying to navigate my way around the ten other displays you have set up in the middle of the aisle..."
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6-18-2010 @11:31PM Gold said... Great,......... just another way to shove more annoying commercials down our throats along with jacking the prices up to pay for these things.
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6-20-2010 @5:51PM Sierra said... This isn't new. 15 years ago, Schnuck's grocery stores had shelves that told the shopper what was advertised as being on sale. They also TV screens mounted on the carts. This was in suburban Kansas City. It wasn't the marketing breakthrough they hoped and cost money so they removed the screens. Actually, the cart mounted TV screen was a computer that activated the shelf voices as it passed. The only useful part was a search capability that gave locations for things.
6-19-2010 @12:57AM purplegrapes117 said... How invasive is this protrusion? Is it scanning your iris, your face, your gait, and sorting through its database of your shopping habits?
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6-20-2010 @4:44PM Vera Strumolo said... Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if they were fitted with the RFID chip inside them. A lot of credit cards now have a RFID chip inside them, so when you pass by a RFID scanner (say, like inside one of these new screens) with your wallet inside your pants pocket/purse, it scans your credit card, sees what you've purchased before, and the screen will change according to what you've bought before. This is not paranoia, nor science fiction, it is a fact. Look it up. Google spychips, RFID chips, VeriSign.
6-19-2010 @1:07AM Jeanne said... I don't need anymore flashing signs, or anything else, telling me what I should or shouldn't
buy !!! If I have to contend with these stupid nutty things, I shall go elsewhere !!!!! Just something
else they can an excuse for to tack onto the prices they charge us, which are higher than necessary right now !!!!! GRRRRRRR!
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6-20-2010 @9:59PM nancy said... Our local Walgreens' have at least 2 talking screens on each aisle. They are motion-activated, so as you go through the store, there is a cacaphony of voices talking all at once. Brilliant!
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6-20-2010 @4:16PM Cooter said... I open the Milk door in Kroger and I hear a Mooooo. I open the egg door for eggs and I hear a bunch of Chickens clucking! I am scared to death to go down the toilet paper isle!
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6-21-2010 @8:59PM BIG TEX said... We don't have these yet but I can't wait to destroy my first one.........................lol................................
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6-20-2010 @4:48PM Vera Strumolo said... P.S. Not to mention, it is also a HUGE intrusion into your privacy. It doesn't mention the names of the supermarkets, but I know that Wal-Mart of a huge fan of this.
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6-20-2010 @5:27PM shell said... annoying yes but intrusion to privacy, um you do realize your in a PUBLIC market right??
they are just suggesting something to you ,you can ignor them ,I think they are a stupid and annoying idea and if there in my area of Fl. they will be in spanish so I wont understand them anyway but geesh just do your shopping and leave its nothing to get all fussy about..
6-20-2010 @7:50PM Sandy said... I would never, ever shop at a store that had talking shelfs. This is insulting and rude behavior
towards customers.
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6-20-2010 @5:20PM Free-Your-Mind said... I agree with most who have commented on how annoying these are to shoppers. I think the best way to get that point across to the companies using those tactics are to simply not buy the products they are forcing down our throats. Shopping isn't something I love to do, the crowded stores, screaming kids, long waits in lines to check out, and of course the $$$ your paying for the whole "experience" is bad enough. Tack on those LOUD in your face ads it just takes to a whole another level and certainly not in a good way. It's why when location allows I shop for groceries online, in larger cities a few main stores offer this sanity saving service. For about $5 delievery fee I can buy what I need, am able to avoid impluse buys, I don't have to carry out or in all those items, I choose what time is best for me for my groceries to be delivered. All done from the comfort of my home which means none of the grocery store chaos. Now that's a shopping trip that's good for the mind and budget. I just wish the service was available everywhere. Why wouldn't more people take advantage of it?
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