Metro Future Store
Special Report!

background…
Future Store Overview
Store Partners/Goals

tour report…
Katherine's Trip
Shopping Carts
RFID on Products
Other RFID in Store
Metro Photos

scandals…
Tag "Deactivation"
RFID in Loyalty Card
METRO Coverup

results…
Media Coverage
German Protest
METRO Reponse

GOAL: Watching Consumers more Closely
(What "Brand Partners" Hope to Gain)

As the privacy war heats up, the RFID industry has begun emphasizing such dubious consumer benefits as "increased product availability" and "improved shelf stocking" as the justification for using item-level RFID tags.

Behind the scenes, however, those same companies reveal that their true intentions go much further.  The fact is they have a keen interest in using RFID tags in products to observe people's in-store shopping behavior, then capitalize on those observations to develop target marketing programs based on individuals' personal characteristics and buying patterns. (This will be especially easy once shoppers can be remotely and secretly identified by RFID-enabled loyalty cards.)

The METRO Future Store website offers a rare glimpse into why partner companies really want to put RFID tags on individual products. Their motivations include:

• Observing consumer buying habits (Johnson & Johnson)
  
• Target marketing (Henkel)
• Addressing consumers "individually" (Kraft)
  
• Individualized marketing (Nestle)
  
• Making individual offers (Procter & Gamble)
  
• Customer Relationship Management, aka CRM (Kraft)
• Testing the (controversial and invasive) "smart shelf" (Gillette)
  [see Boycott Gillette website for details]

Goals of METRO Future Store "Brand Partners" in their own words
	"In the Extra Future Store, further experience is to be gained concerning buying habits." [source]
	"Kraft Foods is testing new concepts and technologies for Consumer Relationship Management (CRM).... The main objective is to address consumers more individually." [source]
	"Nestlé participates in the METRO Group Future Store Initiative to test new marketing concepts and integrated technical systems. Nestlé supports the development of individualized marketing" [source]
	"In the Extra Future Store, P & G sees an excellent opportunity to test new technologies that will help in future to even better meet the customers' wishes for... individual offers...." [source]
	"Gillette is one of the main sponsors of the new Auto-ID technology and...the so-called smart shelf..." [source]
	"Henkel has developed scientifically established, target-group specific concepts..." [source]

Over 40 multinational and German companies have been involved in the development of the Future Store infrastructure, including such well-known names as Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco.