Right now, RFID only tracks goods at the box and pallet level -- useful, but not something customers will see.
Metro, which has more than 2,300 stores in 26 countries, says it's paying supplier Philips Electronics US$0.50 to US$1 for the chips -- too much to tack on to low-priced items such as a 25-cent cup of yogurt. Only when the price comes down -- to, say, 3 cents a chip in the coming years, with order volumes in the hundreds of millions or billions _ could RFID show up in the dairy section.
Other big retailers are also moving ahead on technology that many believe will transform retailing within a couple of years.
US giant Wal-Mart and Britain's Tesco, along with consumer product companies such as Procter & Gamble and Gillette, are experimenting with RFID technology. Gillette has agreed to buy 500 million RFID chips from California-based Alien Technologies.
The tags will have to overcome criticism that they could be used for surveillance after the customer leaves the store -- for instance, by thieves scanning trash to find goods worth stealing.
Metro says its policy will be to turn the chips off automatically as the customer leaves the store.
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