No Sense Of Urgency From Retailers On RFID

from the we'll-wait,-thanks dept

It looks like many retailers aren't heeding Wal-Mart's call to join the RFID revolution. While Wal-Mart has been trying to lead the way, vendors have been kicking, screaming and dragging their heals. Wal-Mart had hoped vendors would be all set with RFID by now, but it hasn't turned out that way. The company also told other retailers: "Test it. Don't wait. Don't be last," to which other retailers appear to have responded, "No, that's fine. We'll be last." Other retailers are pointing to the troubles Wal-Mart has had with RFID, the fact that they're still pretty pricey and don't work as well as everyone had hoped, and they figure it's perfectly fine to let Wal-Mart be first to market. Once the technology has been broken in a bit, they'll become "fast followers," even if it means being "last."
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Steve Proper, 30 Jan 2005 @ 8:58pm

    RF ID

    Walmart is making a big mistake at that. Even at 1/2 the current discounted price 25 cents, it's still too much to spend on labeling consumer disposables. Not to mention the waste and by products from manufacturing these in volume...

    It might make sense if your trying to create a cashier free store... Sounds like a walmart thing.

    Personally, I'd use them as anti-theft device and for monitoring pallets.

    I think a better disposable technology will come along. Walmart jumped the gun. Progressive IT people, not always realistic.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Plastic pallet, 22 Dec 2006 @ 7:47am

    RFID

    Reuseable tags is the solution and not just on plastic pallets

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.