• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, April 7, 2009 11:15 AM

Diageo, whose brands include Johnnie Walker scotch and Guinness beer, is developing in-store displays to encourage shoppers to buy more of its products at retail, including a plan to roll out big refrigeration units so stores can sell their beer chilled, Aaron O. Patrick reports.

The Diageo "pod" creates a partially enclosed, refrigerated beer zone within a supermarket aisle that is intended to hold all brands of beer, not just Diageo's. They will cost retailers about $13,000 each, and I'm guessing they're not going to go over big in older supermarkets with already cramped aisles like my local A&P. Indeed, Diageo has yet to make a sale, though it's working with European chain Spar on a smaller version.

One of the goals of longtime Diageo salesman Ron Anderson, who was named chief customer officer and put on Diageo's top management committee in September, is to teach drinkers how to make their own cocktails. Diageo computer screens in 500 liquor stores in 38 states allow customers to type in the cocktails they want to serve at a party, and the number of guests they are expecting, and then prints out a list of ingredients and quantities.

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