AbsoluteSky, a Montreal company specializing in RFID, will provide item-level tagging to a Staples Store (location yet unknown). They will partner with Fujitsu for the initial installation.
Many stores already use RFID to track cases and pallets to provide real-time information on their inventory, but this is possibly the first time that a Canadian store will be equipped with RFID tags, up to item-level.
In practice, they will know in real-time when a customer or a clerk picks up any product, and then they can track where the customer is going. AbsoluteSky says the solution will provide better customer service (PDF of their announcement), but i’d say it is mostly an answer to their Big Brother Needs.
I have nothing against store-wide RFID tagging because it’s their private space, but you have to be honest, name it “RFID surveillance” instead of “extensive control over loss prevention” or other fancy words.
Comments
Daniel May 25, 2007
No doubt some companies will use it as an excuse to extend their Big Brother style management. It seems to me that paying and treating employees poorly is a sure-fire way to increase stock losses. The solution to that obviously isn’t more technology.
What I find interesting is that we could apply e-commerce metrics to physical stores. What items do people pick up to compare? What’s the shopping cart abandonment rate? Can people find the products they are looking for, or do they get lost in other sections?
There’s probably 10X more money to be made that way than Orwellian implementations, although I don’t trust the suits to figure that out anytime soon.
Anonymous May 26, 2007
LOL,
I am pretty sure that you guys are worried over nothing. What Absolutesky (cool name btw) is probably doing is tagging the items for tracking inventory and not tracking customer behavior per say.
So no need to start a big brother debate here. The system probably helps the store identify how many printers, scanners, shredders, etc… they have in their store, and not identify who is buying what and what are they doing now. At least this is what I got from the meager press release.
Does anyone know where is the “chosen location” btw? I would really like to know that!
Heri May 27, 2007
@anonymous
yes, i agree with you, that’s what is (apparently) written in the press release. but:
1 – security is mentionned twice, and actually it was the first reason they gave for installing it at Staples
2 – even if the initial use is inventory tracking, this technology also has the potential to track customers.
what I meant in the post is that there should be a debate about this before we go to stores in Canada and see that they track whatever we are doing.
Handyverträge January 24, 2011