totallynotaspy

I would definitely recommend reading the full article. There’s all kinds of hilarious tidbits. Like that the Cooler Screens ceo Arsen Avakian’s leadership seems to be rather fiscally disastrous wherever he goes. Or my favorite bit:

Avakian discussed the concept that would become Cooler Screens with friends in Chicago business circles, including Wasson [co-founder of Cooler Screens]. As head of Walgreens from 2009 to 2015, Wasson is most remembered for overseeing its fraught international merger with Alliance Boots, a European chain. But he also bet on technology, gussying up its pharmacies with tablets, acquiring e-tailer Drugstore.com and leading the company’s $140 million investment in a then-promising startup called Theranos. (Oops.)

Jeepers fucking creepers, you would think that Walgreens/ big corporations in general would do some kind of background investigation or get a PI to find out if they have any skeletons in their closets that would prove fiscally harmful if entered into an agreement. Their total lack of operational security and basically saying ‘Yes, Daddy, please?’ when presented with an opportunity from the same guy that dragged the company into the whole Theranos debacle is flabbergasting.

Wasson set up a demo meeting with billionaire Stefano Pessina, Walgreens’ largest shareholder and his successor as CEO, with whom he remained friendly after departing the pharmacy chain. “‘We’re not tech guys,’” Avakian remembers the Walgreens team saying. “‘Prove it to us.’” He and Wasson say that based on their PowerPoint presentation, the company approved a six-store pilot program for 2018.

A fucking POWERPOINT is all it took even after Theranos to convince them of this boondoggle.

I very much imagine it would be. It’s the same as when they put ‘gluten free’ on ridiculous stuff like raw meat, packaged raw vegetables, raw nuts, and the list goes on…