Walgreens says it’s focused on ‘higher-performing’ ad placements as it tries again with digital screens

Looma has a network of more than 7,000 screens across 10 banners, reaching 13 million unique shoppers per month at retailers including Kroger, H-E-B, Harris Teeter and BJ’s Wholesale. This partnership gives brands who work with Looma more opportunities for exposure, allowing them to extend their campaigns into Walgreens locations.

This marks Walgreens’ latest implementation of in-store screens following its $200 million dispute with startup Cooler Screens. In 2018, the tech firm began installing fridge doors in Walgreens stores with digital screens instead of glass that would show virtual rows of products supposedly inside as well as advertising. But as Bloomberg reported last year, the fridge panels would flicker, crash, show the wrong products or even catch fire. Cooler Screens sued Walgreens in 2023 for exiting the deal and secretly cut data feeds to 100-plus stores in the Chicago area, according to the outlet. The lawsuit appears to be ongoing.

Unlike the Cooler Screens displays, these screens sit alongside products rather than blocking the sight of them. Each participating store will have two large screens near the front of the store and in the pharmacy waiting area, as well as digital end caps that can spotlight a single brand or show educational content produced by Looma featuring multiple brands. The content will feature experts and creators across categories such as beauty, personal care, grocery, pharmacy and wellness.

John Storms, vp of digital and retail media at Walgreens, joined the company about six months ago after helping build Lowe’s Media Network. Before that, he spent more than 20 years at Target. At Ascendant Network’s Showcase retail media upfront event in New York City last week, Storms said Walgreens has been rethinking its advertising business — Walgreens Advertising Group — since he entered his role.

“We are focusing on better placements, higher-performing placements — not only online, but in-store,” Storms said, adding that in-store media still represents only a small percentage of retail media ad spending. He credited Looma for “thinking about influencing the point of purchase with merchandising in mind and our customer in mind as well.”

Storms also noted the amount of potential in serving ads in pharmacy areas. Those have “tremendous dwell-time exposure,” given how long customers wait there, he said. A March 2026 survey of more than 1,000 shoppers by Grocery TV and Andrew Lipsman of Media, Ads + Commerce found grocery shoppers were more receptive to ads in the pharmacy than in other parts of stores, especially when compared to shelves inside the aisles or on cooler screens. “Consumers tend to not care in the high-dwell-time wait areas,” such as checkout, deli and pharmacy, Lipsman said.

Major national retailers “understand that [in-store] is going to be a big part of their future retail media opportunity,” Lipsman said, adding that retailers have a better idea of how the technology should be implemented after years of experimentation.

“If you have distracting, annoying promotional content that’s shouting at you, it’s probably not going to be a good customer experience,” Lipsman said. “If you have high-quality brand advertising that informs you of new products or reminds you of a product or a category that you might have needed, those are all positive. Consumers expect to see commercial messages in the store, so they’re not inherently offended by it; it’s really in how it’s done from a content perspective that matters.”

Walgreens’ addition of screens in stores also follows competitor CVS Pharmacy’s moves in the space. It was one of the first retailers in the U.S. to widely implement digital end caps. “I’ve always thought that that was a real power position in the store,” Lipsman said. “It seems to have been executed well and seems to be working.”

Parbinder Dhariwal, vp and gm at CVS Media Exchange, CVS Pharmacy’s retail media network, told Modern Retail in February that the company had already added digital end caps in more than 600 stores in high-traffic aisles. Like Walgreens, Dhariwal said the company’s goal is to make the content feel informational or educational, rather than promotional. In addition to product advertising, they may show information about seasonal promotions or sales events.

“This format allows us to think more personally about the shopper’s journey and tailor messaging to the moment, something traditional end caps simply can’t do,” Dhariwal said at the time. “Compared to static signage, digital screens are more flexible, more informative, and better at guiding discovery and decision-making.”

In January, Dhariwal said in-store media has been part of CVS’ strategy for the last two or three years. At the time, the company said it expects to have about 11,000 total digital screens nationwide this year, with checkout ads on POS systems in about 7,000 stores. The pharmacy waiting-area screens in particular are a big opportunity for CPG brands, Dhariwal said, because they can reach customers before they exit the pharmacy area and move back through the store.

“We communicate with our consumers in the digital channel, but we also need to ensure that we can capture mindshare when the consumers are coming into our store networks, whether they’re picking up a prescription or just transacting at the front of the store for their everyday needs,” Dhariwal said.