I’ve been reading articles about the future of shopping, about how people are going to be acting as their own cashier and bagger. I’ve been wondering how the stores were going handle inventory management and avoid an increase in shoplifting. Well, I think I found the answer to my own question while browsing the Internet today. The answer, I think, is RFID. What is RFID you ask? Radio Frequency Identification. What is RFID you STILL ask? What RFID is, is a replacement to the barcode system.
In the RFID process, each item is tagged with a special tag made with special tag printers. Each tag responds to a radio frequency similar to the way bar codes respond to a bar code reader. HOWEVER what is so cool about this is that each individual tag does not need to be scanned. An entire bag of products can simply be passed by the reader. Or, the entire shopping cart can simply be walked by, without even being unloaded! The reader picks up the signals from the special tags and then the customer pays for the merchandise, and is then given a receipt that is printed out from one of the special Intermec printers that are designed to be used as part of the system.
Intermec is a company that sells all of the products needed to set up this kind of data collection and management equipment to be used in an RFID environment. They even sell portable equipment that can be taken out in the field and used for hours without the need of any electrical outlets!
This is really cool technology we’re talking about here, but it does make me worry about the job security (or lack thereof) for cashiers and baggers!