Thread: One More Reason to Avoid Walmart

***Just one of many many reasons NOT to Shop at Walmart!


Wal-Mart Radio Tags to Track Clothing


By MIGUEL BUSTILLO
[waltag0722] Marc F. Henning for The Wall Street Journal

Apparel supervisor Sonia Barrett uses a handheld scanner to read EPC labels on men's denim jeans on July 19, while checking inventory at the Walmart Supercenter Store No. 1 in Rogers, Ark.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 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.
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"This ability to wave the wand and have a sense of all the products that are on the floor or in the back room in seconds is something that we feel can really transform our business," said Raul Vazquez, the executive in charge of Wal-Mart stores in the western U.S.

Before now, retailers including Wal-Mart have primarily used RFID tags, which store unique numerical identification codes that can be scanned from a distance, to track pallets of merchandise traveling through their supply chains.

Wal-Mart's broad adoption would be the largest in the world, and proponents predict it would lead other retailers to start using the electronic product codes, which remain costly. Wal-Mart has climbed to the top of the retailing world by continuously squeezing costs out of its operations and then passing on the savings to shoppers at the checkout counter. Its methods are widely adopted by its suppliers and in turn become standard practice at other retail chains.
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But the company's latest attempt to use its influence—executives call it the start of a "next-generation Wal-Mart"—has privacy advocates raising questions.

While the tags can be removed from clothing and packages, they can't be turned off, and they are trackable. Some privacy advocates hypothesize that unscrupulous marketers or criminals will be able to drive by consumers' homes and scan their garbage to discover what they have recently bought.

They also worry that retailers will be able to scan customers who carry new types of personal ID cards as they walk through a store, without their knowledge. Several states, including Washington and New York, have begun issuing enhanced driver's licenses that contain radio- frequency tags with unique ID numbers, to make border crossings easier for frequent travelers. Some privacy advocates contend that retailers could theoretically scan people with such licenses as they make purchases, combine the info with their credit card data, and then know the person's identity the next time they stepped into the store.

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"There are two things you really don't want to tag, clothing and identity documents, and ironically that's where we are seeing adoption," said Katherine Albrecht, founder of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering and author of a book called "Spychips" that argues against RFID technology. "The inventory guys may be in the dark about this, but there are a lot of corporate marketers who are interested in tracking people as they walk sales floors."

Smart-tag experts dismiss Big Brother concerns as breathless conjecture, but activists have pressured companies. Ms. Albrecht and others launched a boycott of Benetton Group SpA last decade after an RFID maker announced it was planning to supply the company with 15 million RFID chips.

Benetton later clarified that it was just evaluating the technology and never embedded a single sensor in clothing.

Wal-Mart is demanding that suppliers add the tags to removable labels or packaging instead of embedding them in clothes, to minimize fears that they could be used to track people's movements. It also is posting signs informing customers about the tags.

"Concerns about privacy are valid, but in this instance, the benefits far outweigh any concerns," says Sanjay Sarma, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The tags don't have any personal information. They are essentially barcodes with serial numbers attached. And you can easily remove them."

In Europe some retailers put the smart labels on hang tags, which are then removed at checkout. That still provides the inventory-control benefit of RFID, but it takes away other important potential uses that retailers and suppliers like, such as being able to track the item all the way back to the point of manufacture in case of a recall, or making sure it isn't counterfeit.

Wal-Mart won't say how much it expects to benefit from the endeavor. But a similar pilot program at American Apparel Inc. in 2007 found that stores with the technology saw sales rise 14.3% compared to stores without the technology, according to Avery Dennison Corp., a maker of RFID equipment.

And while the tags wouldn't replace bulkier shoplifting sensors, Wal-Mart expects they'll cut down on employee theft because it will be easier to see if something's gone missing from the back room.

Several other U.S. retailers, including J.C. Penney and Bloomingdale's, have begun experimenting with smart ID tags on clothing to better ensure shelves remain stocked with sizes and colors customers want, and numerous European retailers, notably Germany's Metro AG, have already embraced the technology.

Robert Carpenter, chief executive of GS1 U.S., a nonprofit group that helped develop universal product-code standards four decades ago and is now doing the same for electronic product codes, said the sensors have dropped to as little as seven to 10 cents from 50 cents just a few years ago. He predicts that Wal-Mart's "tipping point" will drive prices lower.
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“ Better yet put them on your kids and keys so you stop losing them all the time. â€

I only pay cash and from now on I will find somewhere outside the store to leave my ID's and other cards.

The criminality going on with the banksters is unbelievable. They will do anything to start that cascade of insufficient funds fees on your bank account. They have routinely gotten us for $400 to $500 per month and we can ill afford it. Fighting the bank has been a part-time job for us.

In some cases the elderly and disabled on Social Security are prime targets and at least in one community at one time something was done about it -
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 51182.html
but mostly nothing is done.

In our case we have not had to do on-line transactions or telephone/telemarketer transactions to get bogus firms taking monies out of our account for unknown goods and services. Every week they have a new idea. One week they signed us up for automatic bill pay with all of our utilities without informing us. While they are doing this to you they are also ruining your rating so that no other bank will touch you - in effect their criminality is tying you to them as a customer if you want banking services at all. Many people in my area are opting out totally and just going to Walmart or wherever and putting their paychecks on a debit card. Sure there is a minor fee but it is nothing to what the banksters are taking from people every month.

Keeping our pittance of monies has become a part-time job for us. We must maintain internet services as well as a car just to fight the bank daily. We catch them re-arranging all of our inbound and outbound on the account daily in hopes of starting the cascade of ISF fees. We take our print-outs to the bank and ask them who are these firms taking monies out of our account? What goods or services did they give us in exchange? How did they learn of us (since we have banned all internet or telephone transactions for our household?) The bank issues us a hardcopy letter stating that they will no longer allow such and such bogus firm into our account. The next day the exact same bogus firm is taking monies out of our account again. We take the bank's hardcopy letter to the bank again and fight them over it. The next day a new bogus firm is into our account and it starts all over. First an internal investigation and on and on it goes.

The state attorney general will not help us. Apparently nobody cares to put a stop to this. I militantly tell people over and over that this is going on. Many people are ashamed. They think that somehow they failed to balance the account properly or that somehow they fell for the bogus firms taking monies out. When I tell people they are relieved that they now understand and that they are not alone in this - but we still have to fight the bank criminality daily - all of us.

So now I know. I will not bring any other ID into any store with me. Walmart is good for going with your family and showing them how they are not the low price leader any way shape or form. They do not have superior quality either. I can do better with local sales in other stores. Once all stores start doing this the taking of monies will go crazy and resolving it will be even crazier - at least it will create jobs - but I'm not supporting it.

As far as employee theft goes, if the company had any loyalty to it's people, in the form of wages, opportunities for advancement and benefits - most theft would stop. Theft is just one more example of the degradation of the US worker caused by corporate immorality and devaluing of its human assets. Do right by the people and they will do right by you.

Hey! Let's market an aluminum/shield-liner for the wallet. I think that will block the spies, at least in our pockets and handbags.

Originally Posted by IndianaJones

Hey! Let's market an aluminum/shield-liner for the wallet. I think that will block the spies, at least in our pockets and handbags.

You can already buy RFID baffles either to go into already existing products, in new products, or if you look around enough you can even find the baffle material to make into something useful to you personally. Quick web search will give a lot of options.

I have a thing about privacy, so I've already got a pattern I made ready for a fully lined handbag if I decide the need is there.

Aluminum foil will block any radio tag or chip.

You can also wrap a cell phone with aluminum foil to keep anyone from tracking your gps system, but you have to take it off to make a call and they can pinpoint your location at that time.

Thanks for the tips!

Hmmm CNN just had a spot about cell phone commercials will be triggered by words in your conversation and then a just for you commercial will play in your ear - that could be really irritating if you are trying to make a 911 call. Supposedly they have 3D commercials activated by your presence in some large cities - like in the mall. Haven't encountered it yet myself. Gee I guess they will have to figure out a way for us to be able to make some money if they think we still have a consumer dollar with options.