Albertsons to Top 100 Suppliers: Be RFID-Enabled by April 2005
In its quest to best Wal-Mart in the grocery business, Albertsons will incorporate radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to bring its supply chain and merchandising operations in-line with those of the low-cost leader. Last week, the Boise, Idaho, company announced that it expects its top 100 suppliers--many of which are OS/400 shops, we have to believe--to start participating in its new RFID program at the case and pallet level by April 2005. The company already has a pilot RFID program underway with select suppliers. In 2003, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer as well as the largest grocery-store chain in the U.S., with $56 billion in revenue from grocery items, announced its plans to have its top 100 suppliers RFID-enabled by January 2005. Albertsons, which takes in about $36 billion a year, has seen its share of the grocery store market dwindle as Wal-Mart takes over. To stop the slide, the company instigated a top-to-bottom overhaul of its core technology (see Baseline's "Albertson's: A Shot at the Crown" for a very thorough story on how Albertsons is using technology to compete against Wal-Mart). Besides keeping up with Wal-Mart, Albertson's announcement gives more momentum to RFID. The week before, Target (Wal-Mart's largest general merchandise competitor) announced RFID plans of its own.
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