It is one thing to try and satisfy the demands of extremely large buyers, which in some cases might make the difference between survival and failure of the firm. In such a situation, the means of controlling risk is to adopt a strategy that includes meeting minimum standards while keeping costs as low as possible. With the movement toward RFID picking up steam, such a position can only be short term in nature. The number of RFID projects grows on a daily basis. More stable and uniform standards are appearing around the corner. Heavy-weights, like Cisco Systems, have jumped into the picture and should help reduce the costs of entry and participation. Cisco says "RFID fits neatly into its long-term strategy to build RFID into its routers, switches, and software" (Sullivan 2005a, p. 25).

Many retailers are becoming more familiar with the technology and moving forward on their installation plans. Ace Hardware Corporation has been testing RFID and plans to deploy the technology across its 15 distribution centers by the end of 2005. Ace has the dual need to improve its supply chain costs and help with the supply chain needs of independent hardware store owners and their consumers. The company believes RFID will provide an assist. With these and more stories hitting the daily news, the reasonable approach is to begin development of a substrategy to the current business plan, one that blends the RFID technology and use with existing strategies...