Walmart Means To Spy On Clothing Use

247wallst.com ^ | July 23, 2010 | Douglas A. McIntyre

[Yosemitest]

Walmart Means To Spy On Clothing Use
July 23, 2010 by Douglas A. McIntyre

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) plans to put radio chips into clothing including underwear.
The big box retailer wants to know what and how much people buy so it can order enough inventory.
Walmart will be, of course, accused of spying on its customers,
but the question is whether there is any harm in it.
The move should certainly improve the company’s supply chain management.
The new system will allow Walmart to see right down to the size level which clothing in about to go out of stock. 
If  it is effective,  all the Walmart locations will probably use the technology.

“This ability to wave the wand and have a sense of all the products that are on the floor or in the back room in seconds
is something that we feel can really transform our business,” said Raul Vazquez, the executive in charge of Wal-Mart stores in the western U.S. told The Wall Street Journal.

There is some concern that if the radio-powered tags are not taken off the clothing that the movements and behavior of customers can be tracked.
That depends on how rigorous Walmart is in removing the tags at check-out.
Human error is certainly an issue at a retailer as large as Walmart, but tracking a pair of jeans or underwear would seem to have limited use
and it is hard to see how it would really cause privacy issues.
Secret tracking of the clothing would be an PR disaster for Walmart
which means it will likely be careful about whether the devices leave its stores.

The technology should increase inventory efficiency for Walmart and its competitors.
It is hard to quantify what the cost saving for this are, but it will allow the retailers to order inventory “just in time”
instead of having large amounts of clothing sitting in warehouses waiting to be shipped until retail workers decide which items are about to sell out.

The process would also have some benefit to customers.
Those 34 long pants buyers will not have to drive 20 miles to find that their favorite jeans are out of stock.

[Yosemitest]

So ... is Walmart working for the FASCISTS Obama Administration, to help track our @ss?

We'll see, I guess.

[Cyber Ninja]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2557939/posts

[XBob]

“track our @ss” - it’s done, now ‘law’ - obamacare -
to get treatment from a doctor, by 2014, doctor will have to report your individual ‘bmi’ (body mass index) (in other words, how fat you are) to the government, each time you visit the doctor.

[butterdezillion]

I always hated visiting the doctor anyway, so this gives me a good excuse to just not do it.

[Moonman62]

Walmart has long been one of the largest non-government users of technology in the world. That’s how they got to where they are. Sam Walton was no dummy.

[struggle]

Microwave, meet clothes.

[television is just wrong]

just stop buying at walmart and don’t wear underwear

[magooey]

So ... is Walmart working for the FASCISTS Obama Administration, to help track our @ss?

Well cr@p on that idea.

[XBob]

ping - i’m still kicking, and hope you still have a shapely ‘@ss’ to track.

[basil]

Well, I have never bought underwear or other clothing from Walmart, and don’t plan on starting now.....

Also, since I weigh almost 100 pounds soaking wet, and seldom visit a doctor, I’m not worried about that either.

What I have to worry about are the lives of my children and grandchildren who will not live in the America I have known and loved for most of my life........(until the last year)

[jessduntno]

Going commando while going commando...Wolverines!!!

[AlexW]

“So ... is Walmart working for the FASCISTS Obama Administration, to help track our @ss?”

I seriously doubt that Walmart is working for the Marxist Obambie administration.

This story is a lot of huff and puff about nothing.
Any steps that a retailer can take to control inventory
helps to keep prices low.
I am quite sure that no scanning goes past the front door of the store.

[Gene Eric]

Amazing Walmart had the ability to restock the shelves all these years.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Wal-Mart sells underwear in its factory packed plastic sacks; the tags would be stuck on the sacks. I would be more interested in what they intend to do for a hung item like a shirt or pants, and then that’s probably to stick it to the price tag. And since it would double as an anti-shoplifting alert device, they would normally get canceled at the cash register. It really sounds like a non problem to me, unless you like to wear your merchandise with the price tag still on it like Minnie Pearl did with her famous fruit bowl hats.

[Salamander]

Ha ha!

The joke’s on them!

I don’t wear any!

[holy hell...did I say that out loud?]

Buck Naked ‘Mander

[LouD]

[Clock King]

I may pay my doc to LIE just to F*** up their system. And everyone else should do so as well. None of your damn business, feds.

[upchuck]

Wally ping.

[Domandred]

Bad enough I have to wash my new clothes before I wear them. Now I gotta microwave them too?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Does this mean they’re gonna know the size of our peckers ?