Electronic Price Tags

[ClownLoach]

Walmart apparently does not use glue. There are very secure plastic channels that hold the tag. So it slides into the channel and is very secure. You would need to slide them out the entire length of the channel to remove them on some rows.

Yeah, see how long it lasts. The vendor makes the channels. Like I said before, channels plus adhesive at Best Buy and Aldi but they still wind up with piles of missing electronic tags. This will go about as well as the Walmart automatic security gates that got ripped out of the stores or disabled as they were useless. That is too rough of an environment.

[storewanderer]

Walmart apparently does not use glue. There are very secure plastic channels that hold the tag. So it slides into the channel and is very secure. You would need to slide them out the entire length of the channel to remove them on some rows.

Yeah, see how long it lasts. The vendor makes the channels. Like I said before, channels plus adhesive at Best Buy and Aldi but they still wind up with piles of missing electronic tags. This will go about as well as the Walmart automatic security gates that got ripped out of the stores or disabled as they were useless. That is too rough of an environment.

It is almost like they need to build the tags into the shelves so they don't stick out...

Can only imagine the cost.

Plus how do you handle pegs?

They still have security gates in Reno... only IN Reno (not outlying stores). Those gates are pointless. Supposedly they count customers.

[Alpha8472]

Walmart stores in the San Francisco Bay Area near Oakland have the gates still.

[storewanderer]

Looked further at those Holiday/Sav-Mor electronic shelf tags.

They are attached to long plastic strips that span the shelves. If there is a way to detach them or move them, I didn't figure it out. I didn't mess around too much as the store only had a few other customers but I tried a few different ways to move/remove one and couldn't. They are ALL left justified to Veteran+'s noted standard and look fantastic on all shelves/aisles. I am wondering if they are somehow locked to the plastic strip and you need a tool of some kind to "unlock" them to move them.

In produce they have some that are attached at eye level and stuck to the top of the displays with a plastic clip (clip on bottom tag sticking up from clip). Since these are far enough to be out of reach of the customer unless they bend over all of the product this seems to work okay.

They are still using printed paper signs for skirt level signage (endcaps, etc.).

[ClownLoach]

Walmart apparently does not use glue. There are very secure plastic channels that hold the tag. So it slides into the channel and is very secure. You would need to slide them out the entire length of the channel to remove them on some rows.

Yeah, see how long it lasts. The vendor makes the channels. Like I said before, channels plus adhesive at Best Buy and Aldi but they still wind up with piles of missing electronic tags. This will go about as well as the Walmart automatic security gates that got ripped out of the stores or disabled as they were useless. That is too rough of an environment.

It is almost like they need to build the tags into the shelves so they don't stick out...

Can only imagine the cost.

Plus how do you handle pegs?

They still have security gates in Reno... only IN Reno (not outlying stores). Those gates are pointless. Supposedly they count customers.

Walmart uses Shoppertrak just like most major retailers. They have a superior traffic counter that looks like a diamond on the ceilings near the doors. It can distinguish between entering and departing traffic as well as adult vs. child. Walmart is not using those gates to count customers as they've got far superior and way cheaper tech already in place.

[ClownLoach]

Reading an article about the tags selected by Walmart, they were testing different types in various locations and have chosen the ones currently being tested in a store in Grapevine, TX. So whatever other ones you've seen out there, odds are unlikely they're the ones that were pictured here.

What is interesting is that apparently PRICER is the chosen tag, but there are apparently separate companies that make different tag channels and such for the PRICER tag. It sounds like Walmart has chosen the same model and mounting that Canadian Tire implemented. Canadian Tire did not purchase the actual mounting system from PRICER, just an advanced version of their tags. So Walmart will get the same extremely cool features of a pick to light system. That means customers should be able to search for an item on the app when in store and make the tag flash or blink for easier location. For the store employees they can make the tag blink when scanning an item to stock, or pulling an item for an e-commerce order.

I do find it interesting that the tag manufacturer has opened up their ecosystem for authorized but competing makers of channels and mounting hardware. That should resolve the failures of the same or similar tags at Best Buy and Aldi.

[storewanderer]

Reading an article about the tags selected by Walmart, they were testing different types in various locations and have chosen the ones currently being tested in a store in Grapevine, TX. So whatever other ones you've seen out there, odds are unlikely they're the ones that were pictured here.

What is interesting is that apparently PRICER is the chosen tag, but there are apparently separate companies that make different tag channels and such for the PRICER tag. It sounds like Walmart has chosen the same model and mounting that Canadian Tire implemented. Canadian Tire did not purchase the actual mounting system from PRICER, just an advanced version of their tags. So Walmart will get the same extremely cool features of a pick to light system. That means customers should be able to search for an item on the app when in store and make the tag flash or blink for easier location. For the store employees they can make the tag blink when scanning an item to stock, or pulling an item for an e-commerce order.

I do find it interesting that the tag manufacturer has opened up their ecosystem for authorized but competing makers of channels and mounting hardware. That should resolve the failures of the same or similar tags at Best Buy and Aldi.

Things like having the tag light up so the order pickers can quickly locate items and pick faster is the type of thing that is an efficiency they can quantify and use to help justify the cost of deploying and maintaining this program.

I think they're going to make this work.

Another place that badly needs this- the drugstore chains.

[ClownLoach]

Reading an article about the tags selected by Walmart, they were testing different types in various locations and have chosen the ones currently being tested in a store in Grapevine, TX. So whatever other ones you've seen out there, odds are unlikely they're the ones that were pictured here.

What is interesting is that apparently PRICER is the chosen tag, but there are apparently separate companies that make different tag channels and such for the PRICER tag. It sounds like Walmart has chosen the same model and mounting that Canadian Tire implemented. Canadian Tire did not purchase the actual mounting system from PRICER, just an advanced version of their tags. So Walmart will get the same extremely cool features of a pick to light system. That means customers should be able to search for an item on the app when in store and make the tag flash or blink for easier location. For the store employees they can make the tag blink when scanning an item to stock, or pulling an item for an e-commerce order.

I do find it interesting that the tag manufacturer has opened up their ecosystem for authorized but competing makers of channels and mounting hardware. That should resolve the failures of the same or similar tags at Best Buy and Aldi.

Things like having the tag light up so the order pickers can quickly locate items and pick faster is the type of thing that is an efficiency they can quantify and use to help justify the cost of deploying and maintaining this program.

I think they're going to make this work.

Another place that badly needs this- the drugstore chains.

The problem with the drugstore chains, at least CVS, is that before they make the investment some engineer in finance (yes they have them there) and an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (not kidding) will be assigned to determine exactly down to the second how much labor can be saved. Once they know how much labor will be saved then they will review and see if the scanning savings, ad savings, price change savings over X amount of time equal the cost of the product. So they see that the product will be paid for in 5 years of payroll savings and more importantly the lifespan of the product exceeds 5 years. Only then will they make the buy, and immediately remove the payroll from the store to cover the cost instead of improving register coverage, sales floor coverage, cleaning the store, etc. They only think in terms of investing in labor cutting technology. So at that point does it really benefit anyone?

[BillyGr]

Things like having the tag light up so the order pickers can quickly locate items and pick faster is the type of thing that is an efficiency they can quantify and use to help justify the cost of deploying and maintaining this program.

I think they're going to make this work.

Another place that badly needs this- the drugstore chains.

The problem with the drugstore chains, at least CVS, is that before they make the investment some engineer in finance (yes they have them there) and an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (not kidding) will be assigned to determine exactly down to the second how much labor can be saved. Once they know how much labor will be saved then they will review and see if the scanning savings, ad savings, price change savings over X amount of time equal the cost of the product. So they see that the product will be paid for in 5 years of payroll savings and more importantly the lifespan of the product exceeds 5 years. Only then will they make the buy, and immediately remove the payroll from the store to cover the cost instead of improving register coverage, sales floor coverage, cleaning the store, etc. They only think in terms of investing in labor cutting technology. So at that point does it really benefit anyone?

Plus, unlike a Walmart or Aldi, CVS has far more deals (now two weekly specials, the ECB's and such), so those may be harder to display on such a system (as the tags they often have for those sales are several times the size, length wise, as the regular ones - that also makes them more obvious to spot, since often the ads don't give a full description of what actually works for the deal).

[ClownLoach]

Things like having the tag light up so the order pickers can quickly locate items and pick faster is the type of thing that is an efficiency they can quantify and use to help justify the cost of deploying and maintaining this program.

I think they're going to make this work.

Another place that badly needs this- the drugstore chains.

The problem with the drugstore chains, at least CVS, is that before they make the investment some engineer in finance (yes they have them there) and an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (not kidding) will be assigned to determine exactly down to the second how much labor can be saved. Once they know how much labor will be saved then they will review and see if the scanning savings, ad savings, price change savings over X amount of time equal the cost of the product. So they see that the product will be paid for in 5 years of payroll savings and more importantly the lifespan of the product exceeds 5 years. Only then will they make the buy, and immediately remove the payroll from the store to cover the cost instead of improving register coverage, sales floor coverage, cleaning the store, etc. They only think in terms of investing in labor cutting technology. So at that point does it really benefit anyone?

Plus, unlike a Walmart or Aldi, CVS has far more deals (now two weekly specials, the ECB's and such), so those may be harder to display on such a system (as the tags they often have for those sales are several times the size, length wise, as the regular ones - that also makes them more obvious to spot, since often the ads don't give a full description of what actually works for the deal).

And it's for that reason Whole Foods actually removed digital tags in the last few years. The promotions didn't stand out well on the screens so they wound up tagging the sale items with stick on flags. That and the increased setup time negated any labor savings. They've gone back to adhesive labels in all stores.