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Wal-Mart Cancels RFID Trial
EABird writes "CNet is reporting that Wal-mart has announced that they have canceled the RFID trial they were planning. Unfortunately, it looks like they are canceling it to focus on the use of the same technology in the warehouses and distribution centers instead, and waiting for the cost to come down before using the RFIDs in the stores."
I can't tell whether or not the poster was completely aware of this and joking about it, but you CAN track your pets with RFID tags (and it's been possible for many years). Most animal hospitals offer this service, which they refer to as "microchipping your pet."
Animal shelters scan incoming pets for microchips and contact the owner. It's an ID tag that is hard to lose. The American Kennel Club recommends the procedure.
See this article for more information.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
The local grocery chain store just opened at the end of June after extensive renovations... more health food, world-themed aisles, larger selections, and a cleaner overall store.
Soon after opening, yellow signs appeared on all registers stating that they were beginning to track inventory using a new technology. Items would have to be scanned before brought outside (otherwise security gates at the exit would go wild in some fashion, I guess), and the technology was "not harmful... comparable to FM radio signals". Given the choice of comparison, I imagine the switch is on to RFID tags on all products there. Either that, or it's a huge bluff; I saw some woman walk out of the store without stuff on the bottom of her cart scanned in and nothing happened.
I am not who I say you are.
Nope. You don't mean that.
What you mean is that most shrink is caused by employees. This includes theft, but also includes things like cashiers failing to ring everything in a cart up, ringing up something cheap instead of a more expensive item, failing to detail recieve every item that is delivered, breaking an item and failing to report it as damaged, using an item in the store and failing to report it as store used, issuing too much money for a return, incorrectly pricing an item, etc.
Some shrink is caused by theft. Percentage wise, not a whole lot in high volume stores.
Most theft in high volume stores is from outsiders. Theft, however, is not nearly as important a number as shrink.
FYI, shrink is the total retail value of all items that should be in the store and sellable, minus the actual retail value of the items inventoried in the store. It's the difference between the value of the inventory the store thinks it should have, minus the value of the inventory it thinks it counted when it did an inventory.
Of course, there are many mistakes made during all of these processes for a high volume store such as Wal-Mart or Home Depot, resulting in a shrink number that can never be precise, due to so many errors in the inventory process.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Well, I can tell you it works really well for some people. My amazon "recommended items" section is ridiculous. It's gotten so good, I started checking it when I want to rent a movie, but I don't know what to rent. I don't think it matters how much they know of my movie preferences, but that'd scare the hell out of me if I were concerned for some other reason (so don't point them out).
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
The big problem in retail stores is theft, because they let the public roam the aisles. Stuff on the shelves represents tied-up money, so store inventories are kept to a minimum, therefore keeping track of stuff in the stores is not that big a deal. They already use tags to deter theft of big-ticket items such as health and beauty aids. RFID will not help them with this problem any more than the existing tags, so there is not much incentive to use them there. No worries, at least yet.
The RFID tag IDs are useless without the database linking them to actual product items.
WRONG. RFID tag IDs have a namespace hierarchy similar to IPv6. Manufacturer code, product code, serial number. They have an option to use a private namespace with their own mappings, but most likely they won't, since the money saving simply isn't there when you have to rip out the old tags and put new ones in for every warehouse you move to and from.
Secondly, anything that is sold should be marked as such in the store's database. Somebody walking into the store with tagged clothing should not be fingered for shop lifting, since the item shoudl have been marked as sold.
WRONG. It's not economically feasible to keep an opt-out database. The other poster already pointed out how stupid it sounds to have the hundreds of wallmart stores cross reference and link up their opt-op database for eternity.
Furthermore, if I walk out of a pharmacy store carrying Gilette razor blades, doesn't that mean i'll be caught stealing those razor blades if I go to Walmart to pick up some DVDs?
Your two reasons for not worrying about security are flawed. Care to try again?
My bad. We clearly should've hired a wise-ass like you instead, who refuted my concerns with impractical suggestions and wrong facts. Care to send me your resume?
Most of retail theft is by employees.
>Nope. You don't mean that.
Yes, he DOES mean that.
According to the National Retail Security Survey, November 2002 conducted by the University of Florida:
Retail Shrinkage:
48.5% Employee Theft
31.7% Shoplifting
15.3% Administrative Error
05.4% Vendor Fraud
Total Inventory Shrinkage $31.3 billion, or $440 in higher prices as a result, per family per year. Source.
I am also a fraud investigator, and overall, the vast, vast majority of all white collar crime is by insiders. While this includes managerial fraud (financial statement fraud), nonetheless this is the fraud, and the dollar amounts of loss invovled are always much higher than from fraud perpetrated from people external to the company.