What type of retailer has the most to gain from deploying RFID for automatic identification? Pose that question, and you'll get a range of answers, depending on whom you ask, but it's unlikely a dollar-store franchise would be among them. Nonetheless, Dollar Chest, a Montreal-based franchiser of retail stores selling products with a price tag of a dollar or less, has deployed RFID across its operations, which it says has improved inventory accuracy and helped increase sales.
Many retailers that sell high-value items, such as jewelry or consumer electronics, have tested and, in some cases, embraced RFID because it allows them to uniquely identify and track cases of goods as well as individual items. Since all items that Dollar Chest sells retail for a Canadian dollar or less, the franchiser isn't interested in tagging at the product level because that would erase its profit margins. Instead, it's applying tags to cases of goods that arrive at its two warehouse facilities in Montreal, then using the RFID labels to receive goods into inventory while verifying order accuracy against an advance shipping notice. Dollar Chest then uses the tags to confirm orders pulled for shipment to the six stores its franchisees operate.
Source: RFID Journal, http://www.rfidjournal.com