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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Wal-Mart Tests Item-Level RFID

As early as 2000 we were positioning RFID tags to soon replace barcodes for item level identification. I gave presentations to many hundreds of innovation space visitors that featured this change in 3-5 years.

It did not happen of course, replaced by an effort to tag cases and pallets rather than individual items. Largely pushed by minimizing out-of-stocks via transparency in inventory. Now in RFID Journal, an early indication of a movement towards item tagging. There continue to be concerns about privacy, especially since these approaches include clothing ... Update: Wal-Mart will not be reading these tags at checkout, so there will be no connection to personally identifiable information, alleviating the privacy issue.

Walmart Relaunches EPC RFID Effort, Starting with Men's Jeans and Basics The retailer has shifted its focus from tagging all pallets and cases to working with suppliers to tag items in categories where the company and its partners will see the biggest benefits ... '

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