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Comment by stevenmays | Hacker News Reader

I think RFID tags are too expensive to put on every product. I may be wrong on this.

Quick search on Alibaba shows that on volume these are just $0.01 each (and probably lower when you buy larger volumes). Of course sticking these to each product is inconvenient and I would assume the tags are not yet built in in most grocery product packaging.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/China-Professional-ma...

Also the cost of labor and/or machines to stick them on.

Alibaba sellers will list almost anything for $0.01 each, though, regardless of actual selling price.

Also never underestimate Jeff Bezos' willingness to lose money in the short term.

Most libraries RFID all their books now so you can just drop them on a scanner that detects all the books you have, swipe your library card and go.

I don't think that's actually what Amazon Go is doing though.

I have a feeling you're wrong -- I see RFID tags on almost everything these days, even tiny cheap products.

Yep, in smallish bulk (low 1000s), you can get them for about 10-20c a tag (and these are "self printed" ones you can print in-store as needed via dedicated RFID printers) (e.g. https://www.atlasrfidstore.com/rfid-label-4x2-for-the-zebra-...)

I am sure that amazon/walmart/tesco/whoever will need more than 1000 at a time and so obviously get a larger discount. Probably down to well under a penny or two - starts to make a lot of sense when you factor in the other benefits (lower staff, easier stock-tracking/taking etc)

RAIN Rfid tag is < 10cents.

1% is a decent average margin in a grocery store (http://smallbusiness.chron.com/industry-standard-gross-margi...).

So, it would require a $10 item to break even on a €0.10 tag.

I don't think you can make that conclusion. Presumably this store will be saving money on cashiers by instead using RFIDs.

The article I quoted claims 1% is the _gross_ margin, in which case my argument is valid. I now think that is incorrect, as other high-ranking Google results claim it is the _net_ margin.

But if using RFID saves them more than the cost of the technology its a win.

Basically if Savings from reducing sales persons > Cost of New Technology, you'll add the new tech.

It doesn't have to be strictly cheaper, as it also adds convenience. Not having to wait at the checkout will be worth something to customers, possibly quite a lot in the case of a shop targeting richer customers.

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