Remember How Outdoor Displays Were Going To Locate And Manage Curbside Pickups During Pandemic?

September 6, 2024 by Dave Haynes

Readers may recall how at the height of the pandemic, there were some display technology companies suggesting retailers would be adding high-brightness outdoor totem displays in their parking lots to better guide and manage the process of mobile pick-ups – parking in assigned spots and staff sporting N-95 masks coming out to load up shoppers’ cars and SUVs with purchased goods, from groceries and booze to home furnishings.

The suggestion was that despite the significant costs of the displays, and what might even be more cost to trench, run power and than pave back over that trench, retailers would be doing just that to enable safe shopping when COVID-19 was top of mind.

But did they?

It occurred to me that I had never seen evidence of that happening, though I live in a digital signage black hole (Canada just got electricity in April, and now they’re talking about paved roads in cities!!!). But I’d also not seen any evidence from the steady flood of press releases and stories I come across, from around the world, day to day.

So I Googled and found lots of sandwich board signs on sidewalks and curbside pickup printed signs set up those for expectant mothers and people with mobility issues. However, there was no evidence of a digital totem doing the work in a designated parking stall or at a retailer’s curbside.

Now it probably was done … somewhere. But there’s no evidence it became a thing. That likely owes to the many, many thousands it would have cost to put in a 3,000+ nit night daylight readable display and all the electrical necessary to drive it. It would have taken some interesting financial modeling to come up with a positive ROI model. And the proponents would have had to convince the CFO $30,000 for the totem made more sense than $300 for a metal sign stuck in a concrete anchor that says “Curbside Pickup, Stall 2, Call this number when you arrive.”

I note all this because a major US retailer is now using screens for curbside pickups, but the giant difference is Target has an app now that works with Apple CarPlay. 

Chain Store Age reports:

Leveraging Apple CarPlay, drivers can sync their iPhone’s interface with their car’s built-in entertainment and information systems, helping them use apps while reducing phone interactions. Apple CarPlay will seamlessly show the driver app’s navigation interface on their car’s built-in screens.

To use this new feature, customers can make a drive up or pickup order in the Target app on their iPhone before starting their drive. Then, once you are in the car and connected to CarPlay, the Target app will automatically display the Target store where the purchase was made directly in the car display. 

From there, customers can view order details, get directions and notify the store when they are on their way to pick up a purchase, and when they arrive in their designated parking space for drive up orders. Target says it will make a version of this service for Android Auto available soon.

I find CarPlay pretty fiddly (maybe because my Mazda has a joystick/know thingie for managing the screen instead of using touch), but I suspect most people with iPhones are comfy and capable with CarPlay. I could imagine this approached being used more than retail by QSRs and fast casuals that do a lot of meal pick-ups for take-home dinners. The pre-sell promos and menu could be right in the app.