A Japanese department store, 109 Men's in Shibuya, has begun experiments with RFID chips embedded in clothes hangers. The idea is that a customer who takes clothing off the rack would trigger associated video, lighting and music, along with a log of the action. But will such a system be worth the extra labor involved?
When customers bring clothes to a dressing room-or even when those apparel items are purchased-there would seem to be a strong chance that the wrong hangers could get associated with the wrong piece of clothing. Attentive associates could painstakingly note the numbers of each identical hanger to make sure one item doesn't get confused with another. That would seem to demand a sharp labor increase, though.
