Story by Colleen Tuite
Illustration by Andrew Kahn

Changes in Grocery Store Planning

You walk into a store, select several products, place them into your bag, and walk back out the sliding doors, without even pausing at the register. Today, it’s called shoplifting. But, within the next few years, it might just be called “shopping.”

Meet the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID): a microchip smaller than a grain of sand with the capacity to store and transmit data. Implanted in manufactured goods, clothing, and food, it can track the location of the item — not only out of the store, but potentially anywhere. As the name suggests, RFID tags use radio signals to transmit information to a “reader” machine, which interprets and stores the data in a computer base. Thus, in a system where both products and consumers carry RFID tags, it is possible to eliminate the checkout line — the computer would add up the cost of the products you carry out of the store, read your identity and connect to your bank account, just as a credit or debit card works today. The RFID is the next step in the demand for consumer information. Beginning with the barcode, and now with “shopper loyalty” cards (e.g., the Jewel Preferred Card), retailers have increasingly utilized consumers’ personal data as a marketing resource.

This is not a frightful peek into the far-off “what-could-be” future. RFID technology has existed since World War II (though most of its development to its current form was done in the 1980s), and is commonly used for tracking pets, among other things. Only its cost, currently about 30 cents for the cheapest tag and around $1,000 for a reader, has prevented widespread use by retailers. It is predicted that RFID tags won’t be widely employed until its cost falls below one cent each. However, it’s also anticipated that this will happen within the next three to five years.

High cost has not, however, stopped some retailers from experimenting with RFIDs. In 2001, an MIT lab, sponsored by Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble, Gillette, the Department of Defense, and other corporations, tested tracking ability by wiring the entire city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The European Central Bank is seeking to embed RFIDs in the fibers of its currency by 2005. Gillette, Wal-Mart and Benetton have all announced plans to use RFID tags; only after strong protests from consumer privacy groups has each backed off.

The technology is here, and it’s only a matter of time before lowered cost will allow RFID tagging widely accessible. Thus, a serious public discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of RFIDs must happen soon. And there are arguable benefits, such as monitoring food spoilage; tracking children, hospital patients, or sex offenders; providing specific medical information and instructions for those with special needs and/or military personnel; and, of course, avoiding the checkout line at Jewel. Most companies eager to utilize RFID tags are less interested in monitoring the movements of consumers than they are in finding an easier way to monitor their stock and provide instantaneous checkout. But it would be naive to think that every company (or government) interested in RFIDs has such wholesome intentions. Even in a society already accustomed to barcode scanners, surveillance cameras, and regular I.D. checks, RFID technology carries a very potent threat to the individual’s privacy.

In Britain, public and governmental discussion has already begun. There has been much talk in Parliament about how to regulate RFID tags. Here in the U.S., we need to follow their example and decide what will be acceptable use and what is not.