The program is separate from the April 19 working program in which eight suppliers from various industries--electronics, health and beauty, food--will begin shipping RFID-tagged cases and pallets to three Dallas distribution centers.
News of the test comes as a new Forrester Research report says the retailer's push to get its top suppliers to toe the RFID party line is going nowhere fast. The report says Wal-Mart's bid to force its top 100 suppliers to guarantee 100% readability of case and pallet RFID tags isn't working. Fewer than a quarter of the suppliers will meet the retailer's deadline of Jan. 1, Forrester says. As recently as December, Forrester was predicting that about 60% of Wal-Mart suppliers would beat the 2005 deadline.