February 27, 2007
Canadians Eager For RFID In Grocery Stores?
A survey in Canada suggests that we are eager to see RFID in grocery stores. I'm not one of them. In fact, I find it kind of surprising because Canadians are generally more conservative about technologies that potentially invade privacy. At least, they have been in the past, when RFID-enabled money cards (not credit, not debit) were trialled.
Well, things do change, including attitudes. And it's more than possible that this video from IBM is the reason for it. It's been running in Canada since at least 2005, possibly earlier.
The survey findings seem to contradict the general reaction of consumers towards RFID chips in everything they buy. (This is based on an educated guess, from the thousands of RFID articles I've scanned or read in the past year.)
If the opinions of the 1,056 shoppers surveyed are truly representative of 35+ million people, then there's hope for the acceptance of item-level RFID. On the other, given that 80% of those surveyed had never heard of RFID, I'm a bit doubtful that the general Canadian populace is eager for it in their grocery items. That said, if IBM and Marnlen's new clipped tags are used, there may be more consumer acceptance in Canada and the US.
--
Did you enjoy this post?
« RFID Roundup - Tues Feb 27, 2007 | Main | Wal-Mart RFID Plans Change »
