Tags tell all as shoppers traipse aisles

By DARREN GREENWOOD

Shopping trolleys in the supermarkets of the future will feature a TV-like device called a personal shopping assistant in which you swipe or scan your store loyalty card.

Knowing who you are, the assistant tells you what you bought last time. As you wander around the store, you might use the device's intelligence: by scanning, it will be able to tell the difference between an apple and a banana - and what price they are.

The personal shopping assistant will alert you to special offers and, based on your purchases, will make other buying suggestions. You may even receive an internet-based message from your fridge at home to say you are short of milk. The scanners allow self-checkout and payment by cash, a loyalty card or credit card.

These stores of the (not too distant) future were a theme of the 11th Asian Retailers Conference and Exhibition, held in Christchurch.

The stores use conventional barcode scanning, plus relatively new radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Its proponents, including IBM, Fujitsu and Tyco Electronics, say RFID will have a bigger impact on retailing and inventory control than the introduction of bar codes 25 years ago.

The technology uses silicon chips that contain identification data to say what the product is and what it costs, plus a mini-antenna. When it passes through a scanner the chip is activated to send or receive information through radio waves.

It is better than conventional barcoding as RFID chips are more durable and do not have to be in line of sight as bar codes do.

Cost is a problem. The tags currently cost 10c each - too expensive to be attached to every item in the store, which is the eventual aim.

Today they are used on the expensive goods, or for stock control (where single tags are attached to boxes or pallet of goods).

IBM consultant Brian Eccles says an advantage for the retailer is that the system will tell retailers when they are running low on something, thus avoiding potential lost sales.

The system can also be used to curb theft, which Tyco division ADT Security trumpeted when previewing its RFID-based inventory tracking solution at the Christchurch conference.

ADT Security's head of retail solutions, John Smith, says retailers have to consider a few things before implementing RFID.

The technology allows the capturing of much data through the supply chain, which the retailers may not know what to do with.

They also have to consider how RFID will link with their existing IT and production infrastructure.

Then there is the cost of implementation, which depends on the number of tags and scanners needed.

Even so, Smith says the solution is ready for those who want it.

There is another issue: privacy.

The technology could also be used to track people, a concern of the US privacy group Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (www.nocards.org).

There was also uproar in Britain when retail giant Tesco tested radio tags in Gillette razor blades. The tags triggered a message to a CCTV whenever a customer picked up a packet.

This issue is being considered by the global Electronics Products CodeGroup, an industry-wide non-profit group that has a New Zealand offshoot, EAN New Zealand. Both groups want industry standards and rules for RFID tagging.

Dicki Lulay, a spokeswoman for the global group, says it has come up with provisional guidelines:

* Consumers must know when a tag is being used.

* After an item is bought, customers must be able to de-activate the tag.

* Consumers control data kept about them that may be used for marketing or other purposes.

Experts say it will be at least five years before the RFID tagging technology is available for individual product use. Its main current use is at the warehouse pallet level.

What else can we expect in the supermarket of the future?

Melbourne-based ILID, a Fujitsu partner, has revealed electronic shelf labelling that uses fluorescent lights to transmit data and thus change shelf prices. Trials are under way at two K-Mart stores in Melbourne, which have about 40,000 labels each - and about 5000 price changes every week.

Fujitsu also revealed its own self-checkout system under which barcodes are used to scan goods, featuring a biometric swipecard and Eftpos and credit card payment.

The scans verify that shoppers are scanning goods correctly. The system can pick up errors and items the shopper may try to steal, alerting supermarket staff to check.

Age-restricted goods, like alcohol, would need the shopper to use a finger scan, recorded by the supermarket, in conjunction with the shopper supplying his date of birth.

The store would keep just the fingerprint reading with the date of birth. No other data would be stored.