Walmart and Avery Dennison have announced a new innovation to advance the use of RFID technology in fresh categories previously not possible.
Officials in both companies said this first-to-market solution is set to transform inventory processes and enhance both associate and customer experiences across fresh departments— particularly bakery, meat and deli.
The retail giant teamed with AD to create and test a first-of-its-kind sensor technology that brings RFID-enabled labels to the meat department. By using Avery Dennison’s RFID solutions in meat, along with bakery and the deli department, Walmart associates can track inventory faster and more accurately— making sure products stay stocked and ready when customers want them.
Walmart Program
With digital use-by dates right at their fingertips, associates for the retailer can rotate products more efficiently and make smarter markdown decisions, helping cut down on unsold food.
“We believe technology should make things easier for both our associates and our customers,” said Christyn Keef, VP of Front End Transformation for Walmart U.S. “By cutting down on manual work, we’re giving our associates more time to focus on what really matters— helping our customers.”
In the Deli Section
The collaboration ties in with Walmart’s broader sustainability goals, including its aim to cut global operational food loss and waste intensity in half by 2030. By introducing automated item-level identification, Walmart and Avery Dennison fresh food operations management smarter, faster and more sustainable.
Julie Vargas, VP and GM of Avery Dennison Identification Solutions, detailed that the biggest breakthrough is tagging the new categories of deli and protein. Among the technical hurdles that had to be overcome included adhesive construction and how radio frequency behaves with dense, liquid-rich products.
“Our background in material science, sensor technology and scale manufacturing came together to make it work seamlessly,” said Vargas.
Avery Dennison Focus
Building on this important milestone for the grocery retail industry, Avery Dennison remains committed to enabling a more connected food supply chain through its Optica solutions portfolio, making visibility and transparency from source to store possible. Last year, Kroger and Avery Dennison announced the rollout of an RFID system with passive UHF RAIN tags applied to the packaging of freshly baked bread, muffins and cookies across most of the company’s 2,750 stores.
Vargas said the solution for Walmart was designed to fit seamlessly into how their stores already operate, fitting into their existing process of how they tag, stock and rotate products.
“By giving each item its own digital identity, associates instantly know the freshness of the foods they are handling, enabling better inventory management and resulting in less waste,” said Vargas. “This is a landmark moment for the industry.”