OT - From the "Muggings on aisle 9..." files

Wal-Mart mandate

In January 2005, Wal-Mart required its top 100 suppliers to apply RFID labels to all shipments. To meet this requirement, vendors use RFID printer/encoders to label cases and pallets that require EPC tags for Wal-Mart. These smart labels are produced by embedding RFID inlays inside the label material, and then printing bar code and other visible information on the surface of the label.

In October 2005 the University of Arkansas' Information Technology Research Institute released a report on its preliminary study of the impact of RFID on reducing retail out-of-stocks and concluded that RFID reduced OOS by 16% over non-RFID based stores.^{[citation needed]}

Two years later the Wall Street Journal published an article titled"Wal-Mart's Radio-Tracked Inventory Hits Static." The articles stated that the RFID plan set forth by Wal-Mart was "showing signs of fizzling" due to a lack of progress by Wal-Mart executives to introduce the technology to its stores and to the non-existent incentives for suppliers.

In October 2007 Wal-Mart announced new focus areas for its RFID implementation.

• 1) Shipments going to Sam's Club
• 2) Promotional displays and products going to Wal-Mart stores
• 3) tests to see RFID's impact in improving category management in select areas.

Another Wal-Mart division, Sam's Club, has also moved in this direction. It sent letters dated Jan. 7, 2008 to its suppliers, stating that by Jan. 31, 2008, every full single-item palletshipped to its distribution center in DeSoto, Texas, or directly to one of its stores served by that DC, must bear an EPC Gen 2 RFID tag. Suppliers failing to comply will be charged a service fee.^[26]

However, in January 2009 Sam's Club drastically lowered the penalty for failure to tag pallets from $2 a pallet to just 12 cents a pallet. The 12 cents a pallet is what Wal-Mart estimated it would cost Sam's to do the tagging itself. Sam's also announced that pallet-level tagging is expected to be introduced throughout the entire chain in 2010 while the deadline for tagging individual items was "under review."

In February 2009 Procter & Gamble stated it was ending its promotional program with Wal-Mart after Procter & Gamble "validated" benefits of the RFID program in merchandising and promotional displays. This implied Wal-Mart was not acting on the information to improve store execution.^[27]

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