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Wal*Mart continues push for RFID adoption
John3 writes "Wal*Mart is continuing to push for vendors to add RFID tags to cases of products for easier tracking through their warehouse distribution system. Most vendors have until 2006 to comply, but their top 100 suppliers must have the tags in place by 2005. Wal*Mart stopped their push for retail level tagging last summer, but by forcing tagging at the wholesale level the cost of the technology will drop as vendors comply with Wal*Mart's decree. How long before price is no longer a barrier to RFID item level tagging?"
They care about profits, not people.
They care about profits, not privacy.
Wal*Mart is evil, and you should avoid their stores like the plague. Use local grocery stores and department stores whenever possible.
Background: 28/M/Bi-Sexual; Owner of a Linux company; MBA Harvard 2003; B.S. Comp Sci MIT 2000
It'll be easier that barcodes - thus faster to pay and leave the store.
:)
In fact you can just pay on your way out without really having to queue, just walk thru the rfid scanner gateway gadget thing..
You'll be able to get into walmart, pick up a pack of tin-foil hats and leave in no time
Last.fm - join the social music revolution
Same thing with barcodes longtime ago. It makes a big difference in productivity. omi
... as store greeters
Stick a bar code thingy one some ones back and watch them set off the alarm as they walk out the door.
From the article: "RFID tags contain a small chip and an antenna, usually coiled, to broadcast a signal. They were originally attached to Allied planes in World War II to distinguish them from enemy aircraft.
I find this hard to believe. Maybe they mean that the mechanism is the same ? Can somebody please shed some light on this ?
As usual, Wally World is asking others to innovate on their behalf, to their benefit, and asking the supplier to foot the bill. The suppliers don't have a choice, because if you're not in Wal~Mart, you're not anywhere.
I think that RFID will easily replace the barcode within the next 2 to 3 years. Like you were asking, when is the price going to go down? Right now it's low, very low but still more than printing a barcode. RFID technology is still growing and the tags are becoming smaller. In 2 to 3 years the price will be pennies.
Don't expect retailers to adopt it right away though. People watch and follow WalMart but no one really adopts new ideas like they do. I'm not endorsing them or even condoning them, just observing. Think about other retailers, go into their stores and see what kind of registers they're running. Look at see what kind of LDT/LRTs they're running. That will give you an idea of where they're at. Registers running DB9s, DB25s, Null Modem Cables, Pentium I and II class processors and even older technology...
The point is that retailers are too slow to adapt to new technology because it cuts into their numbers.
There is a library or two in Michigan that use RFID tech on all of their books. It's great they can locate a book by running a scan for it and go to the exact location. Imagine being able to find that last can of Chicken Noodle soup. Where's my soup dammnit?!?
-Scott
Wal-Mart is implementing this system to better track their inventory and manage it. What privacy right of yours or mine does it affect?
The tin-foil hat brigade on slashdot hates RFID even when it has nothing to do with them. It's amazing that people to immediately defend p2p's legitimate uses, but not RFID.
SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
As I understand it, current RFID solutions are based on small silicon chips - which are probably going to remain rather expensive, even in bulk (at least compared to a bar code). The real explosion of RFID will probably come with the commercialisation of any of the large-scale non-vacuum deposition semiconductor techniques - printable metals, organic polymer transistors etc.
If there is profit in it, your rights will be steamrolled.
First the cases will be tagged, then the products.
If WalMart cared about rights, they would pay employees what they owe them
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I don't have a problem with Wal*Mart using RF to track, stock and sell their wares. I mean as a consumer, hasn't had a bar code or worse, a price tag slapped across the instructions. And I'm sure it would be nice from a store manager's point of view to merely walk down the aisles with a nothing more than a receiver to do inventory
No, my problem is the same issue I have with SPYWARE. Okay, now we have this technology embedded in a coat I buy for my daughter. Now, Wal*Mart can make deals with other companies such a McDonalds to track every time a 4 year old walks into to the door.
And heaven forbid they link-up such tracking with our credit cards.
Oh I know
--- have you healed your church website?
What's particularly troubling about this is not that they're looking to use RFID in their warehouses, but the way they're strong-arming their vendors to adopt it. Walmart has a lot of vendors; it stands to reason that if these vendors are forced to adopt RFID, its adoption at other businesses (grocery store chains, Kmarts, etc.) is only a matter of time.
Not that I shop at Walmart to begin with--I try to make a habit out of not shopping at places that sell crappy products, fire people for trying to organize unions, and force people to work unpaid overtime.
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
I'm sorry, but somebody had to say it...
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
China Opens Front
In Standards Debate
Beijing Targets Technology
To Track Shipped Goods
Using Radio Frequencies
By CHARLES HUTZLER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BEIJING -- China is opening a front in its campaign to set global technology standards by trying to influence an emerging inventory-tracking technology -- a move that could unsettle major foreign investors.
The government last week announced the formation of an interagency group to draft standards for the tracking technology, known as radio frequency identification, or RFID. The technology, which allows retailers and suppliers to track shipping containers and pallets as they make their way around the world, eventually could be applied to billions of dollars in goods traded globally.
A team of Chinese bureaucrats and experts will visit the U.S. and Japan next month to meet companies and government agencies promoting competing and potentially incompatible RFID standards, said Edward Zeng, chairman of Sparkice Inc., an electronic-commerce and Internet-cafe chain, and a member of the Chinese task force.
Beijing has been spurred into action by calls from international retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Ark., and Metro Group AG of Germany to begin applying RFID to goods exported from China, possibly requiring huge outlays by Chinese manufacturers.
Nearly 70% of Wal-Mart's world-wide procurement consists of Chinese-made products, and the retailer wants suppliers to begin using RFID to track shipping containers and pallets beginning in 2005. Metro said last week that its biggest 100 suppliers should start rolling out the technology in November.
The retailers and other proponents of RFID say the technology will spawn a revolution in commerce, helping companies better manage their supply chains, from manufacturers to consumers. RFID involves an array of technologies, including tiny computer chips that are affixed to each product or shipping container and that transmit radio signals, equipment that reads the signals, and servers that store the information for retrieval on Web-based networks. Initially, the technology is expected to be used only to track shipments and inventories, but it eventually could help companies chart purchases by individual consumers, allowing them to amass loads of information on personal preferences.
"Eventually, this will be the DNA of global commerce," Mr. Zeng said. He noted that China's $438 billion in exports last year and its growing role as a world-wide manufacturing hub give the country a say in determining RFID standards.
China's interest in RFID is part of a broader push to determine technology standards and reverse the flow of royalties paid by Chinese companies to license foreign technology. In recent months, the government has announced domestic encryption standards for local wireless computer networks, and it is promoting or developing homegrown technical standards for next-generation DVD players, third-generation mobile-phone networks and household networks that will run entertainment systems and appliances. The campaign has drawn criticism from foreign industry executives who say China's standards won't produce viable, leading-edge technologies and are a form of protectionism.
A bevy of standards needs to be worked out for RFID, from uniform frequencies and compatible signal-reading equipment to formats for data. The U.S. and Japan are allocating different ultrahigh frequency radio bands for RFID, potentially creating a headache for manufacturers that supply both countries.
Some manufacturers also question whether the technology backed by Wal-Mart and other U.S. businesses is inferior to other standards, said Loh Kin Wah, who heads Asian-Pacific operations for chip maker Infineon Technologies AG.
Mr. Zeng, of Sparkice, said China is hoping to avoid friction with foreign companies over RFID. His appointment as the working group's sole private entrepreneur is a sign of the government's intentions, he s
RFID has also been reviewed as tagging luggage on airports. It might be in use somewhere today, but the one I know about, they discarded it because of the cost, not just to the airport in question but because all connecting airports had to have this system as well in order to get the most from it.
However, test done parallel to(/on top) the existing system locally showed that it could speed up the processing because the tag was read everytime the barcode scanners failed to locate the paper strip, and the need for manuel handeling would have been deduced to items that had lost their tag underway.
As usual, Wally World is asking others to innovate on their behalf, to their benefit, and asking the supplier to foot the bill. .
You assume that the supplier enjoys no benefits from this. But the supplier receives the same benefits as does Wal-Mart -- smoother supply chain operations with faster throughput, lower costs, and higher service quality. All that manual crosschecking of pallets and paperwork is an expensive waste of time for eveyone. If Wal-Mart saves money by automatically scanning everything that enters their premises, the supplier saves money by automatically scanning everything that leaves their premises. Its all about keeping track of stuff without spending a bunch of money.
Wal-Mart would never do this if they did not think it provided long-term cost-savings (and that includes any price increases that suppliers will be forced to pass on). Wal-Mart's mandate only forces suppliers to get off their butts and innovate. The only losers are competing retailers who refuse to adopt RFID and have to pass on the costs of their inefficiencies to consumers.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Yes, we want to know whether the chips would invade customers' privacy. Yet nowhere in the article is this issue truly addressed. Privacy is again mentioned further down in the article:
RFID has a dazzling allure in the retail industry, where enthusiasts envision every product having a digital tag instead of a bar code. A can of soda, for instance, could be tracked from manufacture to warehouse to store to a customer's RFID-equipped refrigerator.
That scenario unnerves privacy advocates, who worry about a corporation's being able to track a customer's every move.
Wal-Mart's plan, thus far, is nowhere close to that vision, Dillman said in an interview at the company's northwest Arkansas headquarters.
Does the "thus far" bother you as much as it bothers me? They say that the chips will be attached to boxes/packages/crates, not individual products. Great for people who buy individual products rather than by the box or crate (yeah, some people do buy crates of pop or deodorant or whatever). And even if the chips are only on crates now, how long will it be until chips on the individual products is the rule, not the exception? Because those without chips on individual products would be deemed as "in the technological dark ages?" "Left behind?"
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Given all of the other information about WalMart's record as an employer, I predict RFID tags will be applied to their employees' badges before they are deployed on a larger scale to individual retail items.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I am a very wary customer when it comes to walmart . They have a pretty long history of forcing their suppliers to their knees to get what they want, and from what I understand, RFID tags are no exception.
Fox IV Technologies, a company run by the father of one of my co-workers, is in the business of manufacturing machines that print RFID tags. I was talking about this with said co-worker a few days ago, and he mentioned a couple interesting things:
*for one, RFID tags, individually, cost a pretty penny - upwards of some 30-40 cents per tag for a moderately sized tag (or, more appropriately put, a tag the size that walmart is looking at)
*Walmart is forcing their suppliers to comply with this -- WITHOUT COMPENSATION. The suppliers get no kickback or relief for using these tags - the cost is on the supplier. Even worse, they can't raise their prices, as that would go against Walmart's founding principle.
Taken together, this means that on individual products (such as razors, the most commonly stolen item from walmart, and a prime candidate for individual-product RFID tagging), the cost of these 30-40 cent tags STILL has to be footed by the supplier. This means that a $4 razor refill - on which the supplier was hardly making any money to begin with - now costs the supplier 10% more. Thus, their profit disappears, and it is no longer profitable to sell razors.
Remember, Walmart's only goal is for Walmart to make money. Not their suppliers, not their competitors, and in the end of it all, not the consumers. Be careful where you shop.
If I had a nickel for every time I had a nickel, I'd be richcursive!
I can buy a typical logic chip for 49 cents in quantities of one, and the RFID tags don't need the same elaborate packaging or physical pinouts. There's the antenna, but that's still easier than wire bonds.
A picture of an RFID card.
--- Ban humanity.
here's one simple kit with a reader and some rfid tags to experiment with. One of those 'contact us for price' deals. I'm suprised nutsvolts.com or circuitcellar.com hasn't had hobbyist/experimenters articles about RFID yet.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
If you've ever worked in any kind of warehouse you'd understand the significance of using RFID technology to assist in everyday tracking of goods.
Wal-Mart being evil is a whole different story. There are 2 sides to every situation. Maybe if people gave a shit about anyone besides themselves we wouldn't have Republicans in the House, Senate, Judiciary and Executive Branch. That's all they sell. Fuck your neighbor, here's a tax cut.
When society differes from Wal-Mart I'll call them evil. Until then, it's status quo.
Maybe the supplier benefits. If they're lucky.
If RFID were such a golden opportunity for ROI, they'd already be doing it.
As far as losers, I bet a lot of retailers are looking at this situation and thinking "hey! That's great. All my suppliers will be on RFID by the time the technology is mature and the costs have settled down."
meh.
RFID technology is still in its infancy and as other posters have pointed out, it will not be until individual items are tagged that the danger to privacy will arise. That is still a few years away and there may even come to be benefits for consumers besides not having to line up to have your cart scanned. In the long run the danger of having market researchers wardriving meighbourhoods to take inventories of what products people use is a possibility, but so too is compiling your shopping list in much the same way or having your washing machine warn you that there is a red sock about to go into a load of whites. No doubt the dangers will arise before the benefits (aside from price reductions due to supply chain efficiencies) however I can think of no group better qualified than /. readers to come up with ways to mitigate the bad and ideas to exploit the potential benefits.
I've finally got around to changing my sig
People love to whine about rfid privacy, consider:
l o-TheBlockerTag.pdf
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/JuelsRivestSzyd
RFID interrogators use a binary tree walking protocol to enumerate tags in the field. Get a tag that responds to every query, and you have effectively jammed RFID interrogation around your person.
This is just the first of many ideas; very simple but very effective. Just as many people are working on privacy solutions as are working on the rest of the devices.
It's a very lucrative market after all (privacy sector) because as as we all know:
1) FUD
2) ???
3) profit!!!
Contrary to popular hysteria, RFID is not your enemy.
Beware mods - the parent "Anonymous Coward" is a known troll with many years of trolling under his belt. Take all his posts with a pinch of your usual crack.
Meine Schwester ist sehr, sehr reizvoll - Nietzsche
For years now turnpikes and toll roads have had ezpass that allows you to pay tolls by barely slowing down.
Or you can live in a state that just doesn't have toll roads, where money for the highway system is payed for by *taxes*. It's rather a unique concept, as everyone benifits from a good highway network, everyone payes in their little chunk. You don't have to invest in tool booths nor any form of high-tech system of accounting, nor do you have the bottle neck effect resulting from slowing down to pay your damn toll.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
This is somewhat off-topic, but I saw a lot of people talking in this direction so I thought I'd post a top level comment.
Wal*Mart has a policy; every year they will approach their vendors, and they will demand a 5% reduction in wholesale cost. AFAIK this is not negotiable.
For the first few years, it's doable. However, eventually the supplier will run out of fat to trim, and will start to cut into the meat.
This means (pick at least one):
Lower quality merchandise
Lower pay/benefits to workers
Offshore manufacturing
Levi Strauss used to make the best jeans on the planet. They employed many US workers, and you could buy a pair and wear them for 20 years. They now make NOTHING, and are nothing more than a relabeller of crappy asian knockoffs that wear out in a few dozen wearings. This is due mainly from pressure from their largest buyer, Wal*Mart.
This has happened to MANY companies. The problem is, by the time it gets down to deciding to offshore your manufacturing, you're screwed. You're 5+ years into the relationship with Wal*Mart by then, and they're your biggest customer. You've invested millions into production capacity to feed them. You do what they say or you go out of business. They know this, and they will crush your balls until you lower your price, and they don't give a damn if that means that you now have to close your US plant, turn the town it was in into a slum, and have your clothes made by 10 year old girls in the Phillipines. And if, in the end, you decide to not fire your US workers (or whatever) to drop your price to them, you'll quickly find out how one-sided your "relationship" with them was; they'll drop your ass into the pit of bankruptcy, find another supplier to screw, and not shed a tear.
By all means, if you want the quality of what you're buying to keep going down, and to eventually have everyone in the US employed flipping burgers for each other, keep shopping at Wal*Mart.
See, it's all very good to shout "capatalism" from the rooftops. But capitalism isn't strictly dollars. Consumer choice is part of the equation as well, and consumers make their choices NOT strictly on price, or everyone would be driving Kia's, or strictly on quality, or everyone would be wearing Carhartt's.
Personal morality also enters into purchasing decisions. A moral consumer does not just say "I'll buy whatever's cheapest, fuck everyone else." Retailers know that; if they didn't, you wouldn't see them backpedalling every time they get associated with sweatshops.
Also, capitalism doesn't usually take the form of a buyer waiving a death sentence at a seller and saying "Now, I think you're going to drop your price this year, RIGHT?" That's not capitalism, that's extortion.
Correct me if I am wrong but when I buy a book at a book store they usually have a general RFID tag on them as an anti-shoplifting device... Just as stores like Wal-Mart and Zellers has cheaper anti-shoplifting devices such as those magnetic tags..
Wouldn't it be cheaper to lean away from the magnetic tags and have two purposes for RFID tags.. As a anti-shoplifting device and as well as a item identification media?
I mean yes its easy to find and rip off these tags off of books and items and still walk out but the "average joe" doesn't even know about them.
Wal-mart is one of our bigger customers, and they originally has us slated to be an early adopter of RFID in the case.
We were supposed to be working on this in 2004, however they pushed out implementation out to beyond 2006. As far as I know they didn't say why either.
All I know is that we're not slated to be doing anything with RFID anytime in the near future, and just six months ago we were planning on gearing up to implement across our entire supply chain.
That's $0.30 - $0.40 per CASE, not per item.
It's for warehouse inventory tracking, not shelf stocking.
You'd think people would at least read the article summary.
"Wal*Mart is continuing to push for vendors to add RFID tags to cases of products for easier tracking through their warehouse distribution system. Most vendors have until 2006 to comply, but their top 100 suppliers must have the tags in place by 2005.
While your comment is insightful, you are forgetting about the rest of the equation - WalMart's customers.
When I go to WalMart, I evaluate in my own mind what quality I want and what price I will pay. If the quality is poor, I don't buy. If the price is high, I don't buy.
WalMart is smart enough to recognize when items stop selling and respond sooner or later. Companies that can't afford to lose the "WalMart Contract" should rethink thier business...
You have to be pretty close to the tag to read it. The walmart folks have large tags (4" to 6") on their boxes. The larger the tag, the further away it can be read. The distance of reading is a function of tag size and power.
So, unless they get super powerful readers, they won't be able to tell that you have a pair of granny underwear at home. (900mhz readers have their own problems, especially in countries other than the US) If you don't like the tag, cut it up. I really don't see the big deal with this. Can a tinfoil hat person explain to me why this is such a bad thing?
China seems to think that they're the only country that investors will move their factories to. There are a lot of poor countries that would love to take any opportunities China refuses. One of them being China's neighbor, India, which is projected to have a larger population than China.
China needs to be careful in trying to determine whether it wagging the tail or is the tail itself.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
If RFID were such a golden opportunity for ROI, they'd already be doing it.
Who modded this up? That's like someone in 1980 saying that if Computers were so great, everyone would have them.
It takes time for technology to be broadly addopted, particularly if the gov't doesn't mandate it.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
(1) It lets the supplier easily track cases and pallets all the way down the distribution chain down to point of final delivery. Right now what happens is that a semi-trailer full of stuff backs up to the loading dock, and someone counts/looks at/checks what they can see and signs for it. All the way down the line. That takes time, and is error prone, especially when things get busy. So if the truck driver has stolen a couple of cases of something, or the distribution center has "lost" a pallet, usually someone only spots this after the truck is long gone. Which then leads to the question, "Did someone steal it from here, or were we short 3 cases on the last order?" In a previous life, I worked on a point-of-sale system for a catalog store in Canada. and "shrinkage" (as it was known) was running about 5-15%.
With an evil RFID tag on each case and pallet, a reader or two on each loading dock and a bunch of software behind it, you can at least track how many cases and pallets are being moved on and off each truck as the pallets are being loaded/unloaded. So the supplier/distributor/customer (that's the store itself, not you or I buying a pack of razor blades) knows more reliably what they received. "Hey, there's only 157 cases on these pallets -- we're three short"
(b) By knowing that a given set of pallets and cases have been received at the customer site, then the correct billing information can be generated. Large companies have an awful lot of money tied up in "disputed stock".
Example: "The SlashDot Karma Korporation" claims to have shipped 200 cases of clues to "Microsoft", but "Microsoft" has no record of receving them. Sometimes it can take several billing cycles (say one month for each cycle) to sort this out; sometimes the vendors will just give up. Large corporations have millions and millions of dollars tied up in disputes like this. Note that I'm assuming that the customer is acting in good faith and has lost the paperwork or something.
Coupling RFID tags on pallets and cases with some sort of electronic inventory control/purchase order control system at the vendor level speeds up the process by which money changes hands for goods. We have an electronic transaction which says, "I received 157 cases of clues on these pallets on this date. This was part of purchase order #65535".
There's a couple of sets of people that this is bad for -- the people who steal from warehouses and trucks, and the odd disreputable vendor/distributor/customer who will have a harder time claiming "we sent it/we never got it/pallet, wot pallet?".
In general, it is good for the vendor, the distributor and the corporate customer -- they can all track what was shipped where and when. This is new technology, and it will be a while before it all works reliably -- I think the public announcements that "our suppliers must be using this by the end of 2005" are in the nature of mission statements, and the reality will be later than that. I was working with software driving bar-code readers in 1975 in a similar set of applications, so this is nothing new!
But that's the promise of this technology, and that's why certain large companies (Wal*mart and DoD for example) are driving this supply side initiative. There's a lot of money (no, a LOT of money) at stake here, with lots of potential savings for both the vendor and the corporate consumer. Whether those savings get passed on to teh consumer I'll leave as an exercise to the student.
So for me this looks like a good idea. I can see the privacy issues in having bar-codes on consumer packaging/embededd inside your under-shorts, but this is not that.
And to paraphrase Robin Williams, My opinion of CASPIAN is that Kathrine Albrecht needs to get laid more than any white woman in history,
Cthulhu Barata Nikto
Well, if you're a highschool/college student...its just fine. But, if you're a grown adult, and Wal-Mart is your primary source of income....you're made some seriously bad vocational and life choices. Go get some education, and get a real job...its tougher, but, never too late...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.htm l
If you are not familiar with the way of Wal-Mart, you really need to read the above article. It goes into detail how Wal-Mart continually pressures its suppliers to drop their prices. Eventually, some of these suppliers decide to off-shore or have to go out of business.
And you know what this leads to? Lost jobs. So, basically US consumers are shopping themselves out of their own jobs. The sad thing is, the average consumer either cannot understand this or simply does not care about it. We live in sad times, where most people have no social conscience (although I suspect this has been a problem throughout the ages).
The really interesting thing to me is that Wal-Mart seems to be a lot more "evil" (acting like a monopoly) than anything I've read from Microsoft. The problem is that Wal-Mart isn't bullying consumers, they are bullying suppliers. But it's only a matter of time before these negative ripples reach consumers...
If all you have are silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf.
I must have read 50 comments and not one of them was about RFID tags, which is what the post was about. Moderators should be modding these posts as Off Subject.
My two cents...
I have looked at RFID tag systems and right now they are too expensive for item level tagging. This is what Wal*Mart originally wanted to do. It's alot more efficient than bar code, but way more expensive (right now).
Then they switched to mandating pallet (or box) level tagging which is still helpful, but not very expensive.
I think if more companies use RFID for pallet level tagging the prices will come down and they can then move to item level tagging. I would guess 3-5 years befor item level tagging is affordable.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
That being said, the whole "We don't want WallMart here because they'll kill off our local stores" is bullshit. If people really would rather shop at small locally owned shops, they would, and WallMart would close up shop and move on. Instead, the very same people protesting the new WallMart are right there in line for the cheap crap they sell.
Can a small local store compete directly with WallMart? Of course not. Simple economics will tell you that. On the other hand, WallMart, because of they way they are run, cannot compete directly with small shops, either -- they sell different stuff in a much different environment. The problem really is, shoppers are willing to belly up to the WallMart trough -- simply put, they prefer cheap crap as long as the price is lower.
So, if you don't like what WallMart has to offer, shop elsewhere and encourage others to do so as well. Stop bitching about how WallMart "push[es] local businesses out of business" -- I've never seen WallMart logo wearing storm-troopers crashing through the windows of local shops and gunning down the shopkeepers, nor have I seen them herding shoppers into their stores at gunpoint.
Business relationships are always consensual. Either side can always Just Say No and terminate it for any reason, unless you have a contract that says otherwise. If someone isn't prepared to deal with this, then they deserve to lose.
That's right. A moral consumer says, "I'll buy whatever gives me the most value." And there is no "fuck everyone else" because when you choose to not do business with someone, you're not fucking them. You never owed them anything. The fact that business relationships are consensual, works in your favor too, see?If your values are such that buying from Wal-Mart doesn't get you what you want (because, for whatever reason, you prefer to use items that were made in Ohio instead of the Phillipines, or you prefer items that were hand-stitched for many hours instead of made in a few seconds by a machine) then you don't have to shop at Wal-Mart. You're not "fucking" the Phillipines if you buy from Mom'n'Pop, and I'm not "fucking" Mom'n'Pop when I buy stuff from the Phillipines.
It's not extortion, because nobody is forcing anything on the seller. He can always Just Say No. If his overseas counterparts are able to out-compete him in his business, then he should find another business. Competition, technology, and the need for business owners to adapt to realities, are not death.As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
How is asking for a decent living wage, one in which someone can pay their bills and not have to worry about descending into poverty at the first sign of illness "crying for a handout".
I think you also forget that the US is the only country in the western world where providing a decent level of healthcare for everyone is treated with contempt. Last time I checked, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, etc were all in the "real world".
As I've said in previous posts, a sick child that needs a vital operation is a sick child that needs a vital operation. Whether or not her parents can afford to pay for whatever it takes to make her well again should not factor into the equation.
If you're proud of wanting to live in a society that's intrinsically divided into "haves" and "have-nots" then just say so. But don't pretend that just because you haven't ended up working for an uncaring employer like Walmart (yet) that everyone else can do the same.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Ok, let's take just a minute to hold off on our knee-jerk walmart bashing and think about and interesting RFID idea:
When I go to a store, what is the #1 thing I hate? Waiting in line. There is nothing worse than seeing only a few registers open with huge lines. My time is valuable. I would like to just be able to WALK OUT OF THE STORE WITH MY STUFF. Let the RFID detectors track all the merchandise, then all I have to do is show someone my credit card and ID and sign for it all.
This time savings alone would boost the economy and our standard of living -- think about how many wasted hours you've spent in lines, when you could have been spending time with your family or friends, working to get some more dough, etc.
And frankly I don't give a crap about the privacy concerns -- as long as stores still accept cash, it's the consumer's choice as to how much privacy they want. And, of course, no one is forcing anyone to go to stores whose policies they disagree with.
- jonathan.
a sick child that needs a vital operation is a sick child that needs a vital operation
Federal law prohibits withholding vital services from anyone unable to pay, so don't even try this line.
just because you haven't ended up working for an uncaring employer like Walmart
What is this "uncaring employer" nonsense??? This company has NOT ONLY subsidized health care but also PROFIT SHARING for even part time employees! There is NO LAW requiring EITHER of these but this company DOES IT ANYWAY. Yet you're bashing them just because it's a big company and they don't GIVE AWAY even more "free" benefits!
From Walmart's website:
HEALTH BENEFITS
Our health plan covers most major medical expenses. The company contributes to the cost of health benefits and we offer affordable Associate plans. There is no limit for most health coverage. 60% of our Associates tell us they joined Wal-Mart because of our benefits. We also offer:
Dental Coverage, Company-Paid and/or Dependent & Optional Life Insurance, Business Travel Accident Insurance, Long- and Short-Term Disability, Illness Protection Plan
PROFIT SHARING
All Wal-Mart Associates become eligible to share in the company's profits through our Profit Sharing Program, after one year and 1,000 hours of service. This is funded entirely by Wal-Mart and is primarily invested in Wal-Mart stock. Both Full-Time and Part-Time Associates are eligible to share in Wal-Mart profits.Which part of subsidized health care and profit sharing just isn't enough? How much more handouts do you want?
From Walmart's audited 2003 annual report:
Income tax paid (Amounts in millions)$ 4,462
Since Medicare and Medicade made up 24% of the 2003 Federal budget, Walmart paid for just over $1 billion toward these programs. Please see your would-be snipe about needing, but not affording, vital operations.
Enough socialist ranting from you, please!
Right now the smallest -- and I mean THE smallest -- RFID tag I've seen (I work with them on a daily basis... yes, the ePC tags that Wal-Mart has asked for) is 3 inches long and a half-inch wide. I've got another one from a different manufacturer that's 1.5 inches square. We're not talking about things that are hard to find and remove here.
Why are they so huge? Antennas.
Yes, the tags themselves will continue to get smaller and cheaper. But the antennas aren't going to get any smaller; they have to be large, so that the tag can pick up the 925MHz signal from the reader to power itself on and transmit a signal back.
"Oh, but eventually they'll be woven into your clothes, right?" Well, do you know anyone involved in the textile industry? Ask them about how much it would cost to weave an antenna into a polo shirt. Right now the embroidery machines that are used to put the little guy on a horse are so expensive, that if you don't already have a contract to make them, you can't get a loan from the bank or investors to buy them at your factory. (Girlfriend's uncle runs a factory that makes polo shirts, that's how I know.) We're not talking about something cheap or simple here.
Be realistic about the technology here. Because of the need for large antennas, what's realistic with RFID technology is that even at the product level the tags will be large and easily removed from the item by the consumer or at the register. They'll attach it to the box, not the product, where it'll have a better chance of being picked up by the reader.
You can make the tags smaller, but you can't make the antennas smaller without cranking up the readers' power to levels that would nuke your testicles. That isn't going to happen.
Realistically, the Orwellian RFID nightmare is impossible.