Walmart Deploys Rfid Tags - It's Happening Now!

[daphaze]

http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/29062/R...agging_Products

Quote:Feb. 1, 2005—Wal-Mart has begun rolling out the first applications and process changes based on radio frequency identification data at the original seven Wal-Mart stores in Texas that were outfitted with RFID readers. The aim of the applications is to reduce out-of-stocks by providing visibility into the location of goods with RFID tags.

"They've been live for [three] weeks now," Simon Langford, Wal-Mart's manager of global RFID strategy, says of the applications in the seven stores. "We'll roll them out to the other 140 RFID-enabled stores in February."

At each of the 104 Wal-Mart stores and 36 Sam's Clubs, the company has installed RFID readers at the receiving docks at the back of the building, near the trash compactors and between the back room and the retail floor. For the cases of goods that are shipped to the stores with RFID tags, Wal-Mart records their arrival by reading the tag on each case and then reads the tags again before the cases are brought out to the sales floor.

By using sales data from its existing point-of-sales system, which is not using RFID, Wal-Mart subtracts the number of cases of a particular item that are sold to customers from the number of cases brought out to the sales floor. Based on that information, software monitors which items will soon be depleted from the shelves and automatically generates a list of items that need to be picked from the back room in order to replenish the store shelves.

"By reading the tags on the cases that are brought out from the back room, we're able to see what items have actually been replenished," says Langford, instead of relying on people to record on a handheld computer what has been picked in the back room.

Wal-Mart has developed a handheld RFID reader that acts like a kind of Geiger counter, beeping when an associate gets close to the item he or she needs to pick. That reduces the amount of time spent in the back room. The plan is to provide the handheld devices to associates in the original seven stores and then deploy them at the rest of the 140 stores during the course of the year.

[rockclimber]

Where I work we receive boxes of product that have a sticker that is affixed to them showing their inbound destination. I generally pull these stickers off the boxes because we reuse the boxes. Lo and behold, as of late, I noticed these stickers have a micrchip on the reverse side, the sticky side. Their is copper circuitry and in the dead center is the chip. It's a tiny little f'er and I make a point of smashing these with a hammer everytime I see one.

I embrace certain new technologies, but only a retard would have trouble discerning the danger of RFID. The plan is of course to RFID all products from shelf to home. Even each component in say a radio or a refrigerator will all contain these RFID chippies.

It's all part of the slow conditioning which will eventually lead to ALL being chipped.

Not this sucka

[Forbin]

About 3 years ago, I bought a book in Oxford (UK). After I had taken it home, I noticed there was a loose sticker inside the book.

It looks like this..


But if you hold it up to the light you can see this..


The book I bought was fairly expensive (£50-£60) so at the time I just figured it was a security measure. I still have the sticker in my possession - so I wonder, if someone scans my house with an RFID scanner, would they be able to find out that I bought something from that shop? Is that how it works?

Tagging bins
Also, while we're on the subject of RFIDs and such. My local town authorities are currently introducing a new waste disposal scheme to "encourage" recycling. Each household will be given 3 or so different colored bins which you put different types of trash in. Each bin has a chip embedded in it. The chips are used to track how much rubbish you are disposing (each bin is weighed when it is emptied). The information is held in a database and you are taxed less if you have less rubbish (or recycle it more effectively). I was reading in the local newspaper last week that if you remove/destroy the microchips, they will not empty your bins.

I was considering how this new scheme would tie into RFID tagging. Presuambly, in the future there would be nothing to stop them from scanning the bins for RFIDs just before they emptied them. So then, they could tell what items you buy/use and also when you dispose of them. Sweet huh?

[daphaze]

RFID not to be mixed up with magnetic security stickers. Most mid priced merchandise will have these little stickers that need to be demagnetized at the register.

[tsoldrin]

I found an rfid tag that is only visible when held up to a light on the inner seal top of the coffee cans I buy... also one on a shampoo bottle with the antennae in a spiral in the neck of the bottle. I think the newest ones are nearly impossibly to see and also well hiden.

[jack]

Quote:RFID not to be mixed up with magnetic security stickers. Most mid priced merchandise will have these little stickers that need to be demagnetized at the register.

Good point, some people don't know the difference

[Forbin]

Quote:RFID not to be mixed up with magnetic security stickers. Most mid priced merchandise will have these little stickers that need to be demagnetized at the register.

Oh, its probably one of those then. Thanks daphaze, I feel less paranoid now:)

Quote:I found an rfid tag that is only visible when held up to a light on the inner seal top of the coffee cans I buy... also one on a shampoo bottle with the antennae in a spiral in the neck of the bottle. I think the newest ones are nearly impossibly to see and also well hiden.

I hate the way they hide these things and just introduce them into products without telling the public. Surely it affects your privacy rights if the RFIDs remain operational after you leave the store? They should at least put a big-ass sticker on every product that has an RFID chip in it, so people know that they can be tracked.

[JohnDoe1984]

This Rfid is some of the scariest stuff out there. They are talking about putting these in everything sold. Then later as you walk around all of your clothing and possesions will register wherever a reader is located.

Watch: Casio model#3563aa4 purchased 11/6/09 Walmart Cust. ID #87649857629
Shoes: Pro-Wings model# 89790 purchased 10/4/09 Payless Shoes Cust. ID #87649857629
Shirt: Hanes model#6j purchased 4/18/08 Walmart Cust. ID #87649857629
Pants: Levi's model#98-0 purchased 4/18/08 Hugh's Western Wear Cust. ID #65876700 **warning**

Cust. ID # mismatch**
**stolen item detected** **notify local dress code inforcement**

Like that trash bin reader for example, can you imagine talking to trash enforcement "Excuse me but you purchased a box of wheat thin crackers 6 weeks ago and they haven't registered in your refuse counter here or at work. What did you do with them?" "You know the rules about food packaging disposal. This is your third violation this year." "Get a fourth and it's off to the camp." B)

[rockclimber]

Quote:I was considering how this new scheme would tie into RFID tagging. Presuambly, in the future there would be nothing to stop them from scanning the bins for RFIDs just before they emptied them. So then, they could tell what items you buy/use and also when you dispose of them. Sweet huh?

I thought I heard Alex Jones mention something about this as well. To take it a bit further, I thought I heard him mention that they will actually be able to see if the rubbish exceeds what you actually make in pay in a week's time. I don't know if that implies that they can presume you stole something in excess of your earnings or what it comes down to, but it is scary stuff.

[tsoldrin]

Besides inventory control, in the early roll out it looks like they will be sniffing your RFID cluster (everything transmiting from your person) in order to target advertising at you, by decucing what you buy and comparing that to what others who purchase similarly have bought, on screens or electronic billboards as you pass by them.

RFID definitely has more potential for abuse than any other technology I can think of. There is a watchdog group documenting some of this stuff I think there are flicks about it on the tracker. In one docu a woman explains how combining lots of information from like an ATM, GPS from phone and car, RFID sensors and point of sales systems... by process of elimination they will even be able to tell where and what people spend CASH on as well as their electronic/card purchases.

[stillsearching]

Yeah the latest batch of goods I purchased at The Condomery has those little fellas on each item, you have to unroll it all the way tho, to notice.:LOL::P:LOL: