Platform
A live menu that pays for the software
Written from primary sources and checked against them. As of 2026-09-06. How that is done.
Short answer
How do Bloom's in store screens work, and can they earn money?
Screens in a shop show a live menu drawn from packages that may actually be sold, hold for an interval the owner sets, flip to a cleared advert for its dwell, and flip back. Every play is logged as evidence, which is what makes an advertiser statement worth anything. Whether a shop may take payment for a placement depends on the state, and Bloom encodes that answer with its citation rather than assuming it.
Why the menu and the adverts are one system
A menu board that reads a separate copy of the catalogue will eventually show a price the register does not charge, or a product the register will not sell. These screens read the same sellable packages the till reads, so a recall or a sold out jar leaves the wall at the same instant it leaves the counter.
The legality is the product, not a disclaimer
In store screens are the one advertising channel cannabis can use at scale, which is exactly why the rules around them are strict and vary. Washington's tied house and inducement provisions are the sharp end, and several states are silent in ways that are not permission. Bloom holds the answer per jurisdiction as a rule with a citation, and the answer page on advertising says plainly which states have been verified and which have not.
Three lanes, and the owner controls all three
The shop's own menu and promotions. Creative shared by producers and brands that a shop opts into and runs without money changing hands. And a network lane of paid placements, capped at whatever number the owner sets, including zero, with categories and advertisers they can block. Every creative in every lane passes the same gates.
Questions people ask next
- Can my shop legally sell advertising on its own screens?
- It depends on the state and on who is paying. Payment from a licensed producer or processor runs into tied house and inducement rules, which several states enforce strictly. Payment from a non cannabis business is often unaddressed rather than permitted. Bloom encodes the answer per jurisdiction with the citation, and where a state has not been verified it says so rather than guessing.
- What stops a non compliant advert playing?
- Four gates before a creative can reach a screen: ownership and a prohibited claims check, the owner's own zone controls, the jurisdiction's advertising rules through the same policy engine the register uses, and window visibility. A placement that needs approval is held rather than played, because an unattended screen has nobody to raise a manager.
- What is different about a screen you can see from the street?
- A window facing screen is outdoor advertising in most states, so a zone marked visible from the street loses product photography from the menu and refuses creative that depicts product.
- How is proof of play verified?
- The player reports a play only when the image or video says it painted, so a spot that failed to decode bills nobody. Play events are re-checked at report time against the creative on file and against the rules, so a player cannot manufacture a record for a creative the rules refused. That attempt writes an evidence row instead.
- What happens when the internet drops?
- The last cleared plan is cached and shown with a banner naming its age, unsent play reports queue on disk, and the socket reconnects with backoff while a poll runs regardless, because a socket can die without saying so.