For the most part, retailers testing radio frequency identification (RFID) have confined the use of the technology to warehouse and backroom efforts to track inventory as it moves through a portion of the supply chain. That appears to be changing, however, as retailers such as Meijer are tagging shopping carts to keep better track of there whereabouts and move consumers more easily through the store.
"The biggest complaint we receive is that it takes too long to check out," Stacie Behler, a spokesperson for Meijer, told The Detroit News. "This technology may help us move our customers faster -- we know even five minutes can be an inconvenience."
Meijer is looking to its RFID shopping cart test to time the average length of shopping trips in the store and to determine in-store if the carts are either near the checkout or elsewhere. Outside, the tags will relay information letting the store know the number of carts in the corral or left in the parking lot.
Because the technology will identify when shopping carts are near the front-end, stores will be able to adjust more quickly and open lanes to move shoppers through the checkout. Meijer doesn't have plans to track actual cart movement between departments or down aisles in the store.
As is to be expected, some shoppers are uneasy about the technology while others welcome it, providing it delivers the benefits promised.
Meijer shopper Krystal Gettys said, "That's a little too much like Big Brother's watching me."
Another Meijer customer, Lonnie Cannon, said, "Speed is something I'm looking for. I'm not very patient. If it makes shopping faster, I'm for it."
Discussion Questions: What are your thoughts on the current RFID-enabled shopping cart test at Meijer? What eventual role, if any, do you see for RFID-enabled shopping carts?