Wal-Mart Radio Tags to Track Clothing

finance.yahoo.com...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT - News) plans to roll out sophisticated electronic ID tags to track individual pairs of jeans and underwear, the first step in a system that advocates say better controls inventory but some critics say raises privacy concerns. Starting next month, the retailer will place removable "smart tags" on individual garments that can be read by a hand-held scanner. Wal-Mart workers will be able to quickly learn, for instance, which size of Wrangler jeans is missing, with the aim of ensuring shelves are optimally stocked and inventory tightly watched. If successful, the radio-frequency ID tags will be rolled out on other products at Wal-Mart's more than 3,750 U.S. stores.

This is really "Scientific" To say the least. I would be sorry to be a criminal. What are your thoughts on this issue.

Wally World has been using removable "smart tags" for theft control for years on merchandise.
They are just going to a better grade tag that can be use for both theft control and inventory control

These tags will be removed before you leave the store to keep them from tripping the security gates.

The only problem i can see is with the shoplifters having problems trying to steal clothing with these tags.

Are you telling us you have a hobby.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

I would be sorry to be a criminal.

It will affect more than criminals, this opens up a whole new world to privacy invasion.

An excerpt from Scientific American:

If the idea that corporations might want to use RFID tags to spy on individuals sounds far-fetched, it is worth considering an IBM patent filed in 2001 and granted in 2006. The patent describes exactly how the cards can be used for tracking and profiling even if access to official databases is unavailable or strictly limited. Entitled “Identification and Tracking of Persons Using RFID-Tagged Items in Store Environ ments,” it chillingly details RFID’s potential for surveillance in a world where networked RFID readers called “person tracking units” would be incorporated virtually everywhere people go—in “shopping malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains, airplanes, restrooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, [and] museums”—to closely monitor people’s movements.

According to the patent, here is how it would work in a retail environment: an “RFID tag scanner located [in the desired tracking loca tion]... scans the RFID tags on [a] person.... As that person moves around the store, different RFID tag scanners located throughout the store can pick up radio signals from the RFID tags carried on that person and the movement of that person is tracked based on these detections.... The person tracking unit may keep records of dif­ferent locations where the person has visited, as well as the visitation times.”

George Orwell may have had the date wrong, but it would appear that he wasn't that far off.

[edit on 23-7-2010 by ZombieJesus]

[edit on 23-7-2010 by ZombieJesus]

Even if they didn't remove the tags for some reason on purchase (like if they forgot) wouldn't they be ruined when the clothing was washed anyway? I don't see much of a big deal here, unless I'm the only one that washes my clothes...

Just saw this myself. From what i've read this will not be on their security tag. It's going to be in the clothing size label itself. Wouldn't suggest buying much of anything from wal-mart, however if you're concerned you can nuke the tags in the microwave before throwing away.

Wow, they are going to have a field day if they try to track my drawers down. Sometimes I can't even remember where I left them.

Then again, if you are buying your undies at wal-mart, I guess you won't be accidently leaving them somewhere.

--airspoon

reply to post by ANNED


Yes, Wal Mart, and most other retail chains have been using Electronic article surveillance for years, but those are a lot different than RFID chips.

Electronic article surveillance

Electronic article surveillance (EAS) is a technological method for preventing shoplifting from retail stores or pilferage of books from libraries. Special tags are fixed to merchandise or books. These tags are removed or deactivated by the clerks when the item is properly bought or checked out. At the exits of the store, a detection system sounds an alarm or otherwise alerts the staff when it senses active tags. For high-value goods that are to be manipulated by the patrons, wired alarm clips may be used instead of tags.

Radio-frequency identification

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the use of an object (typically referred to as an RFID tag) applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.

IMO, the negatives far out-weigh the positives in regards to implementing RFID as a security means in retail stores.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


I went to Walmart to purchase copier ink a couple weeks ago. I wanted to purchase TWO but there was only one on the shelf... so the clerk did a scan to see if anymore were in stock. Guess what? The scan showed that there should have been FIVE on the shelf... which normally would have meant that FOUR had been stolen. When I left the store the alarm went off and another clerk had to check my packages. As it turned out... it was the copier ink and a USB headset from the same department that set of the alarm. Not quite sure what happened... but my guess is that something probably wasn't programmed correctly into the computer with either of these items when they were originally put on the shelf.

The USB headset already had an electronic tag and it still didn't clear properly at the checkout.

reply to post by Chamberf=6


Heh I chuckled a bit at the last portion of your post, but they could be lined with something that keeps them water proof/sealed tight something of the sort.

Can they put one in each sock, and give me a scanner to help me find my missing socks?

Ren and Stimpy find all the missing socks on the other side of a black hole:

Oohhh Ohhhh... So this is how they going to really start things? interesting...... Yeah sure, let them test new equipment on us, way to go for the corp. , First it'll start off only in Wal-Marts then moving on to K-Mart and so on and so on until it reaches your own home... now then what? we inventories as well?

I think the way it is now is good enough...

Once the RFID is in all the new clothes, they will label second hand clothes "unsafe" so that you'll need new clothes.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Hypntick
Just saw this myself. From what i've read this will not be on their security tag. It's going to be in the clothing size label itself. Wouldn't suggest buying much of anything from wal-mart, however if you're concerned you can nuke the tags in the microwave before throwing away.

That doesn't make sense, if it's in the label why wouldn't a thief cut the label off..

Originally posted by Hedera Helix
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

... it was the copier ink and a USB headset from the same department that set of the alarm. Not quite sure what happened... but my guess is that something probably wasn't programmed correctly into the computer with either of these items when they were originally put on the shelf.

The USB headset already had an electronic tag and it still didn't clear properly at the checkout.

In the case of WalMart's inventory control system I can give you a little insight. I was an assistant manager at a WalMart store just one year ago. The new inventory system is supposed to help curb lost sales due to improper stocked shelves, not tracking you in any way, shape or form. In every walmart stockroom the clothing is the most difficult item to properly catalog and store, not to mention one of the fastest turning items depending on department. Seasonal items, promotional items and various other garments get mixed up so easily that a new system had to be devised to get the product out on time.

It take round the clock associates just to keep the department organized. Every few minutes another shopper ransacks the table, unfolding, looking and laying in a wad clothing back on the racks. This is fine because that is their parogative as a shopper and what the associates get paid for. However keeping the system stocked is far more difficult when the back room is jammed with seasonal clothing, holiday, blitz or any other special release item that comes with the next alternative rock cd. Trying to wade through the endless mounds of clothing that are hanging from racks is near impossible because each peice is an individual instead of a case like the rest of the inventory.

Wal Mart's inventory system works by eliminating partial case stocking. Years ago the overnight stockers would bring out pallets of merchandise, put up on the shelf what they could to fill it and take the rest back. If that meant that three cans of chef boyardee were left in a loose box, then they were left over. The more up to date system works by tracking daily sales and automatically "picking" product only when an entire case of it will fit on the shelf, this eliminates all the loose product clogging up the hall arteries and allowing you to "bin" only full cases making for a much cleaner and more efficient stockroom.

However with clothing there is no case. You get random numbers of clothing at random intervals because the clothing purchasers through the home office have to purchase so many according to the deal with the manufacturer to which those are sent randomly to each store based on category sales.

The tracking system is not to keep tabs on you, it is to make the job easier for the employees that have to manually scan in every single piece of clothing every truck night and then stock them. With a "homing beacon" of sorts it will make it much easier to double check the inventory system with the tracking tags and find the product for the customer.

The biggest key here is that they take it off at the door, so how is that tracking unless you try and steal it?


As far as your printer ordeal, the printers they were supposed to have in stock will only usually hold one on the shelf depending on the size of the store. Most larger stores will hold maybe two or three, but unless it is a popular model, rarely five at a time. The security tags are deactivated by magnets in the register pad, but not always are they thorough enough to get them all. Sometimes the warehouse puts security tags in the strangest of places, like the side of a box or package instead of the bottom.

reply to post by Kingalbrect79

As far as your printer ordeal, the printers they were supposed to have in stock will only usually hold one on the shelf depending on the size of the store. Most larger stores will hold maybe two or three, but unless it is a popular model, rarely five at a time. The security tags are deactivated by magnets in the register pad, but not always are they thorough enough to get them all. Sometimes the warehouse puts security tags in the strangest of places, like the side of a box or package instead of the bottom.

It was printer INK... not a printer that I purchased. There was only ONE cartridge on the shelf (I wanted TWO) but when the clerk scanned the item to check if more was in stock... it showed that there should have been FIVE on the shelf. We're talking small PIXMA INK cartridges here. Go back and re-read my post.



[edit on 24/7/2010 by Hedera Helix]

reply to post by Hedera Helix


Sorry, the post said that I replied in the PM, but trust me, it was early am when I posted it and half asleep at that.

In either case, regardless of the item, if it showed items in stock that were not physically on the shelf then they were added to what is called a "pick list". This list is supposed to be cleared out by inventory associates on an hourly basis and the merchandise sent to the floor for immediate stocking. It is possible that you either caught the item before the pick could be completed and replenished, or that four other people had the same cartrige in their carts and were still shopping.

Most people don't believe the second case is possible, but trust me, I've seen it happen.

In either case you got what you needed and you don't have super secret WalMart agents knocking down your door wanting to know everything about you because of one security tag.

King

**Edit**

My post says 6:05 PM but it's 1:05 AM here. I'll have to check the time settings, weird.--Found it, fixed it. was some weird country, dont' know how that happened.

[edit on 25-7-2010 by Kingalbrect79]

[edit on 25-7-2010 by Kingalbrect79]