Portuguese Book Megastore Deploys Item-Level RFID System

When a customer selects a book or other item, he can take it to a kiosk equipped with an Advanced ID ST500 RFID interrogator. The kiosk's reader captures its number and a computer screen displays details about the book or item's cost, title and author, as well as other titles that might be of interest. At the point of sale, says Creative Systems' director, João Vilaça, the customer places a stack of items on the counter, and an Advanced ID interrogator captures their item tag ID numbers, displaying them on a screen for the customer as well as the store clerk, who then rings up the sale.

Patrons who have completed a purchase and are leaving the store pass through an Alien RFID portal that captures the RFID numbers of any items they are carrying and compares them with those of the items sold. If any ID numbers are not recorded as having been sold at the POS station, the portal reader triggers an audible alarm.

Thus far, the system is working well, Vilaça says. Some modifications needed to be made specific to the security gates, Vilaça notes, since many customers at Byblos also frequent Throttleman, a nearby clothing retailer that employs RFID tags for a similar system, also provided by Creativesystems. If an item from Throttleman is carried through the Byblos gate, Vilaça says, the system will not recognize the EPC number and will not sound an alarm.

According to Gaspar, Byblos intends to open four more book megastores in 2008, in Portugal and Spain, then five more in 2009, all equipped with the same RFID functionality.

Retailers in other parts of the world are installing or expanding item-level RFID deployments as well. Last year, for instance, New Balance tested an EPC Gen 2 RFID system in its Lawrence, Mass., store (see New Balance Stepping Up Its Use of RFID). Like Byblos' RFID system, New Balance's deployment uses Vue Technology's platform and Avery Dennison tags. The shoe manufacturer recently announced it has expanded its use of RFID by tagging all shoes sold in that store, and by deploying a self-service application whereby customers can utilize a Motorola MC70 handheld PDA to check on inventory.

In the next four months, says Gordon Adams, Vue Technology's senior sales VP, the firm expects to announce new initiatives by several more retailers, including one major company in North America that Adams says is launching a large-scale, in-store RFID implementation.