Big Brother Comes To Wal-mart

[Promethus]

Never buy a first year Storage Server.

[Kidlicious]

Wal-Mart isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I wouldn't be suprised if even if this became a big deal with the American public that it didn't hurt their business at all.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
Windows Storage Server 2003 could do it.

No, the hardware underneath is just not up to snuff.

[Ben Kenobi]

[Quote]
I just happen to be a very perceptive individual...
[Quote]

forgot who made it,

With a memory like that?

We're approaching sig material.

[ixnay]

Hey, what do you know, a Snopes article on this!

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/rfid.asp

You're welcome.

[Lancer]

What? A person with a lousy memory can't be very perceptive? He just wouldn't recall his insights.

Gotcha there Obiwan...

[Hurricane]

I really don't see what's the big deal about this. The RFID tags are not meant to track individual customers, but to track the individual packages. As we all know, Wal-Mart has been a forerunner in logistics, so it's just natural that they are looking for new ways to improve their processes even more.

[JohnT]

Snopes linked to the same crap article that lead this thread. Good job being objective, guys!

UR: Glad that my Linux troll bagged me a fish. Too bad - it's so small and puny that there is no need to keep it.

And, compared to the puffery that lead this thread, my linked article is as factual as something out of Nature.

[JohnT]

Oh, and thankx Ixnay.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
Instead of wasting millions of dollars on goofy projects like this, why don't they just see what sells the most and what people ask for the most? Put it this way and see if it makes any sense to you:

"The way to boost sales for next month is putting little computers in shaving cream cans."

If you had read any articles other than the Starret piece, you'll find that the real reason for these tags are for real-time inventory management and control.

"Supply-chain specialists see RFID as the backbone of an infrastructure designed to identify and track billions of individual objects all over the world, all in real time."

It's not a goofy project: these things have been in use since 1988 and are used in such diverse venues as the Boston Marathon, tollbooths, and even security at the Oscars.

[rah]

When you total up all the money lost in poor inventory management and shoplifting, these chips could be a big money saver. If that allows them to sell things for even less, more power to them. I predict we'll see almost all medium/high priced easy to shoplift items being equiped with these in the next 10 years. As stores verify the cost savings, you'll be uncompetitive not to use them.

RAH

And people that are worried about privacy just don't realize just how much is already available on you.
That was lost years ago.

[CerberusIV]

Maybe I don't get the point as to why this is a problem as most high value items in stores in the UK are already tagged. They take the tag off at the checkout, otherwise the alarm goes off at the door. This is potentially extending it to virtually all products and might seriously reduce shoplifting losses (especially if they put detectors on the staff exits). If they can do that it would outweigh the cost of chipping everything.

The chips are transponders (no batteries) and are picked up within a few feet of a detection device only. AFAIK they are permanently disabled by being passed through a strong electromagnetic field

As for information on customers, they already have it unless you pay cash. I get the bulk of my supermarket shopping delivered once a month from Tesco. I order on line, pay using their store debit card, and when I log on to the website there is a list of what I have bought previously. They even send me personalised money off coupons based on what I already buy. It is convenient and I really don't get excited about anyone else knowing what shower gel I am using this month.

Incidentally, Wal-Mart bought the Asda chain here in the UK and, despite fears of them dominating the sector, they are consistently getting their butts kicked by the other supermarkets, particularly Tesco.

[rah]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
Maybe I don't get the point as to why this is a problem as most high value items in stores in the UK are already tagged. They take the tag off at the checkout, otherwise the alarm goes off at the door. This is potentially extending it to virtually all products and might seriously reduce shoplifting losses (especially if they put detectors on the staff exits). If they can do that it would outweigh the cost of chipping everything.

But employees know how to take those tags off.
These will help to see if some employee is stashing stuff in their lockers or other locations. A few employees have already been caught using these chips. One of my buds is a manager there, and he had some hilarious stories about employee/shopper theft.

[Kidlicious]

Empolyees can be the worst theives. My wife worked at K-Mart shortly before they went bankrupt. They were really getting ripped off bad by their employees at the store where she worked at. They ended up closing that one down.

[Spiffor]

Are products that easy to shoplift in your supermarkets ? In France, all prducts are marked with a magnetic stamp, which serves both to give the price/reference when the cashier yields it, and to ring the alarm if it passes through the gates without having been demagnetized.

However, I've seen in Germany that this technology isn't universal. My buddies have no rpoblem shoplifting when they want to.