Walmart To Deploy Sensors To Track 90 Million Grocery Pallets by Next Year 17
Walmart plans to deploy sensors across its 4,600 US stores by the end of 2026 to track 90 million pallets of groceries shipped annually [Editor's note: non-paywalled source]. The retailer and technology vendor Wiliot announced the expansion Thursday. The sensors will monitor the location, condition and temperature of perishables as they move from warehouses to stores. Walmart started testing Wiliot's sensors at a Texas warehouse in 2023 and has expanded to 500 locations. The full rollout will cover the retailer's US store network and 40 distribution centers.
The microchips measure 0.7 square millimeters and are embedded in shipping labels. They use Bluetooth to transmit real-time data about pallets. Walmart previously relied on manual scanning and paper checks by employees. The Arkansas-based company employs 2.1 million people but increased revenues by $150 billion over five years without adding workers. Walmart accounts for more than a fifth of US grocery sales.
The microchips measure 0.7 square millimeters and are embedded in shipping labels. They use Bluetooth to transmit real-time data about pallets. Walmart previously relied on manual scanning and paper checks by employees. The Arkansas-based company employs 2.1 million people but increased revenues by $150 billion over five years without adding workers. Walmart accounts for more than a fifth of US grocery sales.
Active Bluetooth transmission 0.7 sq mm? (Score:2)
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What do you want to bet in practice they get all their energy from electromagnetic, and how they get it is being targeted by an RF-emitting reader every time they are read.
Re:Active Bluetooth transmission 0.7 sq mm? (Score:4, Interesting)
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The devices — made with microchips 0.7 square millimetres in size — are embedded in shipping labels stuck to the shrink-wrapped bundles of items trucked from warehouses to stores
That indicates that the chip is 0.7 mm, but it makes no claim whatsoever about the antenna and potentially other electronics (e.g. capacitors) that may be included in the full device. I'd assume that the antenna covers the back of the entire label.
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Slashdot: “Walmart plans to deploy sensors across its 4,600 US. The sensors will monitor the location, condition and temperature of perishables The microchips measure 0.7 square millimeters and are embedded in shipping labels.”
I am reasonably tech and hardware literate, and even have some professional experience in embedded and wearables, with the joys of
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Re: Active Bluetooth transmission 0.7 sq mm? (Score:1)
The company's website describes the stickers as "postage stamp sized", which appears to include the energy harvesting and darts transmitting antenna structure. 0.7 mm2 is likely the size of the chip itself.
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Trying wine 2003 (Score:2)
Walmart's been trying to get suppliers to RFID stuff since their 2003 RFID mandate, which demanded suppliers tag pallets and cases by 2005, but s pretty much failed out of the gate due to exorbitant tag costs, unreliable technology, and supplier pushback, resulting in only partial compliance and a scaled-back approach by 2006. They really pushed for UHF EPC backscatter tag standardisation. But UHF is PITA. It can reflect off surfaces, not penetrate to cartons inside pallets with metal and water.
But.. they k
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using a small antenna and efficient rectifier, capturing 2.5-50 W in retail environments to charge a capacitor for brief BLE transmissions that consume ~9 J per packet
The units on 2.5–50 W must be wrong. 50 watt is impossibly high for a device, reportedly 0.7 square millimetres, to capture. That an irradiant flux of 70 megawatt per square metre, or over 50,000x the peak solar insolation above the atmosphere.
Re:Trying since 2003 (Score:2)
Yep sorry. I should stop trying to type on an ipad in bed!
The title should be Trying since 2003, and power obviously should be uW!
Oh slashdot, the ability to edit posts in 2025.
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Track stolen pallets..... (Score:2)
but shrinkage (Score:2)
Walmart needs to deploy sensors in shoplifters.