Supermarket News
SANGER, Texas (May 4, 2004) - In its test of RFID (radio frequency identification) tags announced last Friday, Wal-Mart said the tags would be placed on pallets and cases of shipments for 18 products — and directly on packaging of three electronics products from Hewlett-Packard. The tagged shipments will be tracked by readers at a DC here and seven stores in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. The three products — two HP Photosmart photo printers and an HP ScanJet scanner — may feature RFID tags on the outer packaging. The chain said outer packaging will be marked with an EPCglobal symbol indicating it contains RFID tags with EPC (electronic product code) chips. Also, Wal-Mart pilot stores will feature supplemental signs to help customers further identify the tagged HP products, as well as EPC education pamphlets. Consumers may choose to retain or remove RFID tags after purchasing the HP product, Wal-Mart said. "We can certainly understand and appreciate consumer concern about privacy," said Linda Dillman, CIO. "That is why we want our customers to know that RFID tags will not contain nor collect any additional data about consumers. In fact, in the foreseeable future, there won't even be any RFID readers on our stores' main sales floors." In the future, however, Wal-Mart hopes to place tags on items to improve the customer experience, she said.