the Albertson’s channel

September 26, 2005

I must admit that I haven’t been shopping for a while. In the breakdown of domestic chores in my household, my husband usually gets the groceries. He finally came down with the terrible cough that’s kept the rest of the family home for the past week, so I went out for popsicles, Nyquil, and OJ. In the checkout line, I saw video monitors showing “the Albertson’s channel.” I had no camera to capture the insanity, but karin posted a photo on flickr.

OK, so it’s not quite the world of Minority Report. No hookups yet to RFID tags and every checkout station shows the same channel. Nevertheless, it feels like mind pollution to be exposed to cooking tips with interstitial advertising. CustomWeather(R) forecasts trade places with Reuters news headlines — neither contain much informational content. I’ll bet some corporate marketing innovator came up with this idea, presented compelling ROI and argued that it benefits the consumer. We all need advice on how to keep our herbs fresh, right? Well, call me a luddite, but I’m not psyched about this particular application of technology. Does anyone think this is a good thing? or does it creep you out too?

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