Wal-Mart RFID rollout
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Gillette and Johnson & Johnson are among the eight manufacturers testing electronic product codes at seven Wal-Mart supercenters in the Dallas/Forth Worth area in the first phase of the retail chain's radiofrequency identification program. The trial will include 21 products, and additional suppliers may be added, according to Wal-Mart. All of the retailer's top 100 suppliers must have RFID tags carried on cases and pallets distributed to Wal-Mart stores by January 2005. P&G and Gillette were early advocates of alternatives to the universal product code as sponsors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Auto-ID Center, which developed RFID ("1The Rose Sheet" Oct. 1, 1999, p. 6)...