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Wal-Mart Cancels RFID Trial

Posted by timothy on from the is-your-foil-hat-rfid-enabled dept.

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."

4 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. But you CAN track your pets with RFID tags... by dpbsmith · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!

    1. Re:But you CAN track your pets with RFID tags... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

      SOME do this. very few of them have the funds to buy the scanners and pay the monthly subscription to the database. espically the privately run animal shelters (you know the ones that don't simply kill the animals 3 days after they get them.) that can barely keep their doors open let alone deal with some expensive technology.

      I know many people that had their pet's chipped and were contacted a YEAR later when fluffy was taken to a vet finally and on a chance was scanned. Fluffy was already adpoted by another family over 6 months previousally...

      it's not a worthwile thing to do until ALL places are required to scan the pets and the national database is free for use.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. Most theft? by stomv · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  3. RFID in the warehouse by FranTaylor · · Score: 5, Informative
    I used to work in Quality Control for a big grocery wholesaler. One of their biggest problems was inventory control. Not necessarily theft, but human errors such as omissions, extra cases, and mistaken identity (for example, strawberry yogurt instead of strawberry banana yogurt). Sometimes stock was not rotated correctly and it would sit in the warehouse until after its expiration date. We stocked hundreds of grocery stores from each warehouse; I am talking about a LOT of inventory here! They expended a lot of time and energy to track down and minimize these errors. The error rates were watched closely by upper management, because the impact on the bottom line was quite significant. RFID has the potential to detect these sorts of errors ahead of time. The grocery business (in general) is highly competitive and margins are paper-thin, so any technology that helps to cut down on these sorts of problems will show up as lower prices on groceries for you and me. If the RFID tags are associated with cases instead of individual items, consumers will not encounter them, and there is no threat.


    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.