Unless you pay for expensive tags (like $20 per tag) or use really short range scanners (e.g. a hotel key), RFID tags don’t work reliably enough.
Antitheft RFID tags for example won’t catch every single thief who walks out the door with a product. But if a thief comes back again and again stealing something… eventually one of them will work.
But even unreliable tags are a bit expensive, which is why they are only used on high margin and frequently stolen products (like clothing).
All the self serve stores in my country just use barcodes. They are dirt cheap and work reliably at longer range than a cheap RFID tag. Those stores use AI to flag potential thieves but never for purchases (for example recently I wasn’t allowed to pay for my groceries until a staff member checked my backpack, which the AI had flagged as suspicious).
Unless you pay for expensive tags (like $20 per tag) or use really short range scanners (e.g. a hotel key), RFID tags don’t work reliably enough.
Antitheft RFID tags for example won’t catch every single thief who walks out the door with a product. But if a thief comes back again and again stealing something… eventually one of them will work.
But even unreliable tags are a bit expensive, which is why they are only used on high margin and frequently stolen products (like clothing).
All the self serve stores in my country just use barcodes. They are dirt cheap and work reliably at longer range than a cheap RFID tag. Those stores use AI to flag potential thieves but never for purchases (for example recently I wasn’t allowed to pay for my groceries until a staff member checked my backpack, which the AI had flagged as suspicious).