Wal*Mart continues push for RFID adoption 502
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 don't care about us (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:They don't care about us (Score:5, Insightful)
This is financially destructive to local mini-economies, as the meagre minimum wage doled out by them to local employees barely feeds anything back of worth.
Re:They don't care about us (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem with Wal*Mart is a shade worse. Wal*Mart pushes their own suppliers out of business. Producers have to reengineer their entire businesses to meet Wal*Mart's price points.
In the case of (admittedly struggling) Levi Strauss, it meant that they had to close the last of their US operations and move production to China.
Wal*Mart is also responsible for their cheapo "Signature" line.
Being able to sell to Wal*Mart will make your sales numbers skyrocket, but you will no longer make any profit on what you sell. But if you don't do business with them, you will be crowded out of the market by whoever does.
To adapt a Chinese saying to the situation: To not do business with Wal*Mart is to await death; to do so is to invite death.
Re:They don't care about us (Score:4, Interesting)
I've lived in AR and other southern states where they are all over the place...but, I've never had much need to shop there. Certainly not for things like clothes, etc.
On the other hand...I LOVE Sam's Club..the wholesaler store they run. I think everyone needs a gallon of mustard in their fridge...
WallMart doesn't push anyone (Score:3, Insightful)
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
Re:They don't care about us (Score:3, Insightful)
But, honestly, of course they are about profits, they operate in AMERICA, a capatalist economy. Hmm, you mean that they want to succeed and crush competition?
Imagine that.
Mod parent up as funny or down as troll, whatever you see fit.
Re:They don't care about us (Score:5, Insightful)
The original poster does have a point though, if you interpret his recommendation to boycot WalMart to mean that we (the consumers) should change our habits so that we don't shop there as long as they don't care about us or our privacy. In other words, make it so that respecting customers translates into profits. And that's perfectly valid, actually the preferred, way for consumers to change behaviour of corporations in capitalistic system. (The other way would be making laws that restrict use of RFID tags, which in captilistic society should only be used as a last resort measure since it interferes with competition and free market.)
Re:They don't care about us (Score:4, Insightful)
What's scary is, the consumer doesn't care either. Maybe it's because we're trapped between one crap company and another, but no one does anything to protect themselves. The company will employ anything to raise profits, and although it may invade our privacy, the consumers dont care.
We're getting fucked, and are yelling out "MORE!! DONT STOP!!"
..and i am mostly no different
Re:They don't care about us (Score:4, Insightful)
I wouldn't qualify that first statement there with the whole "crap company against another". You're flat-out right, the consumer, as a group, doesn't care as much about their experience with a store so much as price and selection.
Those who complain that Walmarts wipe out the local mom-and-pop stores are simply making the same statement. Just because a Walmart opens in your community doesn't mean you HAVE to shop there. It's your choice, and the choice of everyone in the community. They vote with their feet and their dollars, and Walmart wins by a landslide most of the time. There is genuine value in the fact that I can go there and get some groceries, household goods, and have the oil changed in my car all at the same time - all at very low prices.
Re:If you have a nametag.... (Score:3)
Re:They don't care about us (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:They don't care about us (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:They don't care about us (Score:5, Informative)
Re:They don't care about us (Score:4, Insightful)
NO KIDDING! We are a textile distributor and there have been very large increases in the price of cotton. Wal-Mart has told us, "don't pass along a price increase. We won't pay it, and we'll stop buying from you."
Our vendors have raised their prices and we're caught in the middle. We need the buying power WalMart's orders give us, so we can't stop doing business with them. Go monopoly power!
Re:They don't care about us (Score:5, Insightful)
When a Walmart opens in an area, the local average wage goes down. Way down. This negatively impacts where you live: lower wages = lower tax base = lower services or higher taxes.
Walmart offers such horrible benefits, most employees use the benefit package of their significant other for health coverage. This means that it generally costs local business more on benefits after a Walmart comes to town. The result is higher prices for the stuff that you don't buy at Walmart.
So, next time you think you are saving 5 cents on your Pop Tarts, remember, it's probably costing you a lot more in other areas.
- Tony
Re:They don't care about us (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you'd agree that if everyone paid for their own health care, the consumer's and employee's power would be much greater, and much less susceptible to these sorts of hidden costs.
The biggest problem we face today, in my opinion, is the creeping socialism that allows government and business m
Re:Grow a brain, troll... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Grow a brain, troll... (Score:3, Informative)
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:They don't care about us (Score:3, Insightful)
That's really relative. If you were to go to a southern state like Alabama, then you would see an abnormally high number of pregnant women working the cash registers at walmart.
Why not Wal*Mart (Score:2)
Re:They don't care about us (Score:5, Insightful)
Eventually the individual price-stickers vanished and you are required to remember the prices on a cart full of items. Last week I opted to take advantage of an in-store special on coffee, but at the checkout, my receipt showed the regular price. There was no dispute. The coffee display - and special price - was clearly visable from our location, but the cashier did not have the power to override the barcode data. I could pay full price and get the coffee, cancel the coffee and not get it, or pay full price and wait in line at 'customer service (sic)' where I had to sign a docket to get my refund!
RFID tags will be in everything. You will come to accept it. and when your are injured my their misapplication, either though somebodies incompetence or mallice, you will be further inconvenienced for meager compensation. It will not take 25 to 30 years.
You're stupid. (Score:3, Insightful)
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 st
Re:They don't care about us (Score:4, Insightful)
Especially the change from 95% american produced products to more foreign produced products.
Re:They don't care about us (Score:4, Insightful)
When I was in Flordia, I had a choice between Walmart and Winndixie within a 5 mile distance. I tried the Winndixie first to get some basic groceries, had my rescript with me in the Walmart. Everything from milk to lettuce was a good deal cheeper, by a good margin. The quality of the produce was superior at Walmart then. Walmart actually had a natural food section for things like soy milk and such.
What was really sad was Walmart / Windixie where the local grocery stores. There was nothing equal to them for about 12 miles according to the phonebook anyway.
I'm not what you'd call a Walmart fan, I do infact get ill at the thought of going there. But there are those times when the cost of their stuff is so low you gotta choose between morals and budget, and no body needs morality when there isn't enough to eat. Besides, on their super low price get you in the store to buy something diffrent items, I feel that i'm doing them harm by buying their ultra mega low price item and not buying something diffrent.
I can see why (Score:5, Funny)
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
Re:I can see why (Score:5, Informative)
This only helps Wal~Mart make their warehouses and backroom more streamlined.
while on that subject...countries fight about rfid (Score:3, Interesting)
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 f
Re:I can see why (Score:2, Informative)
should increase productivity (Score:2, Insightful)
Wal-Mart Now Hiring Former IBM Engineers (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Wal-Mart Now Hiring Former IBM Engineers (Score:2, Insightful)
1. The happier the customers, the more they buy.
2. If you are met by a person when entering the store, you will be less likely to shoplift.
3. It's good karma for the store to hire senior members of the community.
4. All of the above.
?
Re:Wal-Mart Now Hiring Former IBM Engineers (Score:2)
Even though they're invariably smiling senior citizens, at our Wal-Mart, the greeters also cover the exit door and follow people out if they set off the anti-theft alarm. This happened to me when I bought some CD-Rs but the cashier didn't rub the magnetic strip across the demagnetizer enough. As I left, a speaker on the way out told me I had activated the anti-theft sensor and told me to wait for a "customer service representative" to check my bags. The
its funny to.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:its funny to.. (Score:2, Interesting)
It was funny weeks later when I kept setting off an inventory control system and couldn't figure out why.
WW II technology ? (Score:4, Interesting)
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 ?
Re:WW II technology ? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:WW II technology ? (Score:2)
Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:5, Insightful)
By that logic, Walmart (which has pushed initiatives like this before) would be a high-cost, high-price retailer, instead of the highly efficient, low-cost one that has grown to dominate its industry.
Package-level RFID does have benefits to offer, and will certainly be commonplace 10 years from now. What Walmart is doing is to act as an early adopter. You'd think the Slashdot crowd would be more receptive to companies pushing the tech envelope...
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:3, Interesting)
Wal-Mart can crush the wholesalers (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:3, Insightful)
No, the wholesalers will foot the bill. See my previous post [slashdot.org]. WalMart has put the squeeze on us, and our vendors are raising their prices. In this case, it's not joe-sixpack footing the bill, it's coming out of our profits and it's affecting my paycheck (fuck-you-very-much-WalMart)!!! If there is less profit in my company, there is less money available for raises and bonuses. WalMart's slack-jawed consumers w
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course suppliers should foot the bill. Would you prefer that wal mart paid for this "innovation" and passed the price increases along to you? But it is more than that. Walmart has a business model of low prices. Everything (well most everything) they do is centered around shaving a penny off end price to the consumer. They use low price to drive up volume so they can beat their suppliers over the head. They succeed and people cry foul.
I have never understood this "I hate wal mart because they are a large company taking advantage of poor inefficent suppliers like P&G" mentality.
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Supplier Benefits) (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Supplier Benefits) (Score:3, Insightful)
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."
Wrong view, many companies want Wal-Mart business (Score:2)
Put it this way, would you rather sell to them or have your competitor doing it?
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:2)
Walmart's actions have nothing to do with unfunded mandates. It's called capitalism. Walmart has a sizeable amount of market share in their business, and with that they get to exert some amount of influence over their suppliers.
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:2)
Reply1: The wholesalers won't foot the bill, it'll be passed down the food chain to the consumers.
Reply#1 is correct...the net costs will be passed on to consumers. In the case, Wal-Mart (I believe correctly) thinks the the addition of RFID's will lower overall costs. The net gain
Re:Another Unfunded Mandate (Score:3, Interesting)
WalMart is ferreting out corporate fat and consolidating it in the Walton family bank account. They aren't any more malevolent than any other businesspeople - they're just more successful.
The real negative impact on the consumer economy from this kind of business has been happening for decades now, but it's been spread around many companies. (depreciating 'real' wages, rapidly increasing executive compensation, accelerating
Away with barcodes and in with RFID (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:Away with barcodes and in with RFID (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Away with barcodes and in with RFID (Score:2)
Re:Away with barcodes and in with RFID (Score:3, Informative)
Privacy?? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Privacy?? (Score:3, Funny)
RFID tags have also been known to subvert democracy. For instance, they put RFID tags on all ballots and track who voted for who. Next time you get a knock on a door from a representive
Re:Privacy?? (Score:4, Informative)
Note the question asked at the end of the post:
"How long before price is no longer a barrier to RFID item level tagging?"
If this goes on then probably, eventually RFID's will replace barcodes.
Not that I think that's such a bad thing.
I wouldnt' be too worried about it. (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Re:Privacy?? (Score:2)
Yea, that made sense. Way to tie two completely unrelated issues together and mold them into one clear, coherent thought. But, hey, at least you didn't sound like an idiot when you did it... oh, wait.
The amusing part is, up until that, you actually had a good point. Although, I suppose it's in "Privacy" based on the slippery slope, one of Slashdot's favorite sins: "If Wal-Mart pushes for this, it will lower the costs and thus the barriers to w
Re:Privacy?? (Score:3, Insightful)
His point wasn't to mold two unrelated issues together, so please stop trying to substitute redirection for substantive argument.
I think it was a perfectly appropriate illustration of duplicity in the Slashdot hive-mind.
Re:PARENT IS KNOWN TROLL - MOD DOWN!!! (Score:2, Funny)
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.
Re:Privacy?? (Score:3, Interesting)
RFID can infrine privacy, so RFID will infringe privacy, so ban RFID
We need a sober discussion about it.
I suggests that items with RFID tags should be marked as such, the RFID tag should be easily removable, and it should be clear how to do so. A significant fine ($500?) should be imposed for putting a concealed RFID tag (without court warrent). It is, after all, easy enough to find if something has
Re:Privacy?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Big clue to the paranoid people out there... the government has you right where they want you. You pay taxes and generally don't create a nuisance. Anything more is gravy.
Something to watch, not fear... yet (Score:2, Insightful)
RFID technology (Score:5, Informative)
Corporations do not care about your rights (Score:4, Insightful)
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 [tripod.com] what they [freepressed.com] owe them [ksworkbeat.org]
If you don't trust Wal-Mart... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but somebody had to say it...
Re:Corporations do not care about your rights (Score:2)
Re:Corporations do not care about your rights (Score:2)
barcodes aren't RF sensitive.
getting a Orwellian out there (Score:5, Insightful)
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 I been trolled? (Score:2)
You sound more than just a bit paranoid, and more than a little looney too. This isn't (as you people love to parrot) "Orwellian". This is the evolution of technology. Get used to it.
"and having seen the later used to track and sometimes even ticket drivers via toll systems"
Ahh yes, those EVIL toll booths that do nothing more than take pictures of lisence plates of people without a transmitter driving through the EZPass lane (going through without paying)
troubling (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Luggage on airports (Score:3, Informative)
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.
privacy hidden away in the storage room? (Score:5, Interesting)
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?"
Do we have to be ludites? (Score:2)
This is a new technology, you can do great and not so great things with it - just like with every other technology. We have laws (and moral and ethics) to deal with the not-so-great aspects.
This approach has more or less worked in the past centuries - and I expect it to work further.
So, if you do not want WalMart or anyone else to infringe on your privacy then get some goddamn laws to protect your privacy - beacuse your REAL concern is protec
Prediction (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Prediction (Score:2)
buyer beware (Score:2, Interesting)
Fox IV Technologies [foxiv.com], 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 - u
Volume volume volume (Score:3, Insightful)
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 [computerworld.com] of an RFID card.
It's per case, dumb-ass, not per item. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
2006? (Score:2)
2006? That's such a long way off, like 4 or 5 years right? Wait, what year is it again?
RFID is not your enemy (Score:2, Interesting)
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/JuelsRivestSzydl o-TheBlockerTag.pdf [mit.edu]
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
Why not Wal*Mart (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Books and Anti-Shoplifting Devices (Score:2, Interesting)
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
We were supposed to be an RFID vendor with WalMart (Score:4, Informative)
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.
how many of you have actually used RFID? (Score:4, Informative)
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?
Re:how many of you have actually used RFID? (Score:3, Informative)
overall it is just the word walmart that is driving the fear in this thread. For some reason alot of the people here want to feel above the others because they spend more of thier parents money on an item that other purchase for less.
Supply chain tracking (Score:5, Insightful)
(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,
US consumers shop themselves out of their own jobs (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.htm l [fastcompany.com]
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...
What about RFID? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Walmart Bashing is getting old (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:RFID detector (Score:2)
Ahhh... but how do you detect the RFID tag thats in the RFID tag detector?
Re:RFID detector (Score:2, Informative)
why? (Score:2)
Re:why? (Score:2)
Re:RFID detector (Score:2)
A shopper can stand in front of an item at the Walmart store, and the Walmart website can offer that product along with possible alternatives. It's also great for selecting bigger items (which tend not to always be stocked) and buying them online while in the store.
People are more interested in shopping when they are in the store - they aren't as int
Re:RFID detector (Score:2)
What I would want is a device to destroy the tag. A device that emits, say, 50W of microwave radiation would do it. Just sweep some microwaves across the product and any tags would be disabled.
Re:Books (Score:2)
I agree it's a little cynical, but I've never heard anything good about WalMart.
Re:RFID's are everywhere (Score:3, Insightful)
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 pa
Re:RFID's are everywhere (Score:2)