ShopCast adds screens over chillers in Walmart

September 8, 2009 by Dave Haynes

The other little brat is off to college now, and as I pushed an increasingly stuffed grocery cart around a London, Ontario Walmart Saturday – my daughter merrily stocking her new apartment’s cupboards and fridge on our nickel – I had lotsa time to look around.

I wrote recently how my local Walmart store had recast its Shopcast screen mix and focused on screens in the checkout lanes. I did not wobble into that store’s grocery section on my last trip, but noticed the other day in London (home base for Shopcast owner EK3) that there are also screens dropped way down from the ceiling and over some of the chiller tubs – those big mid-aisle frozen foods containers you see in grocers.

No camera with me so no pix, but the screens are what look like 40s in portrait mode. They are down at near eye-level, which is good, and unlike some of the other screens in the store there is no sign of the (sorry guys, but) numbingly stupid weather forecast and time/date stamp things.

Some of the content flashing  through the programming cycle was spot on, for goods available in the immediate vicinity. But some of it was for stuff that wasn’t even sold in grocery, which seems to defy common sense. Then again, it’s product and price promotion when people are shopping, which beats TV and flyers. NO sign of what looked like paid ads.