Wal-Mart says radio ID works

[Dover]

Wal-Mart says radio ID works
Knight Ridder Tribune News

Wal-Mart Stores declared radio frequency identification a success Monday and announced plans to expand the pilot program to 600 stores and a dozen distribution centers by fall.

RFID technology is used in tags with a computer chip and an antenna that emits a radio signal. The tags are expected to replace the bar code....cont'd

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2996863


Well......that article was short and sweet, eh?

[saigon68]

1. Mark of the Devil

BeezelBush

[egoprofit]

seems expensive compared to use of barcodes..

but what do i know? this is a world of robots and radiowaves.

[mccoyn]

3. I think they save on staff.

If one person can scan a cart full of stuff in a few seconds, but it takes a few minutes with the bar codes, they will save a lot.

[AllegroRondo]

5. Its actually pretty cheap

the tags dont need a battery, and are about the size of a postage stamp. Less than a penny each.
The drawback to non-powered tags is that they have to be within a few feet of the reader to register.

[Thor_MN]

16. less than a penny RFID tags? Where? 2003 Prices between $0.57-0.91/t

5-Cent Tag Unlikely in 4 Years

Average price of a passive UHF RFID tags will drop to only 16 cents by 2008, according to ARC Advisory Group, dampening wide adoption of item-level tagging.

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1098/1/1/


Tagging a $2 item with a 50 cent label makes no sense...

[mccoyn]

2. I can't wait till next christmas.

I can scan all my presents long before I open them.

[lady lib]

4. Hello Costco

as if we needed another reason NOT to shop at Wal-Mart.

[mongo]

6. To be fair here

Walmart is having their suppliers tag Cartons and pallets with RFID tags, not individual products. So the box with 16 4packs of toilet paper will have a tag, not the 4pack you carry to the register.

Yes, there is a problem with products being fitted with RFID tags which are not deactivated at point of purchase. I don't want to be scanned when I walk into the mall so they can know what stores I bought my jeans in. But that is not what is being rolled out by Wallmart

Millions of pets are now fitted with these devices, but I haven't seen much backlash on that use of the technology.

[leveymg]

7. Radio chip doubles as an anti-theft tag, too

Those things could also be useful at home - never misplace my glasses or keys again. Could tag the dog, the kid, and the wife . . . the possibilities are endless. They could put one in my driver's license, or in my butt . . . nah, that's paranoid.

[TrogL]

11. except they don't work

The local Zellers has practically everything RFID'd and they've had to pretty much assign one teller to man the door apologizing for checked goods setting off the alarm.

[leveymg]

12. Must give customers that personal post-sales attention they like so much

The damned claxon horn goes off so often at the local HomeDepot (another big W supporter) that the clerks don't even pay attention anymore.

Wonder if there's a correlation between companies that bug their merchandize and those who support a Repug total surveillance society? If I were more of an opportunist, I'd buy some stock in RFID manufacturers now.

[fob]

15. THey stopped reacting to the "claxon horn" at our local HD too.

Instead they hire a "security guard" to stand there and make a mark on your receipt with a highlighter on the way out. It's not very convenient when you have to get 10 80 lb bags of concrete mix moving again, but at least it clogs up the doorway and makes for confusing entry and exits for everyone, including whomever has crotched the batteries that sounded the claxon horn again!

[lady lib]

14. Paranoid? Mebbe

But don't think for a second that the DoD hasn't looked into the possibilities of human tracking.

[EVDebs]

8. Shoulda had 'em on all that HMX, RDX etc explosive material that's

now in Iran !

[leveymg]

13. It's all fresh, home made. No need to import Saddam's old junk

[malachi]

9. Technology has been a round for a while. IT friend was working on

SW project for http://www.checkpointsystems.com/ back in the mid 90's.

[Democrats_win]

10. Wal spending tons on PR instead of actually Being good.

Wal is putting out full-page newspaper ads saying how "good" they are. Hey, its a lot less expensive than actually paying someone a living wage. And they get to blame their critics too.

Come on Wal, do the right thing and then gloat.