Dutch Bookseller Creates Item-Level RFID System.

The article reports that the Dutch book retailer Boekhandels Groep Nederland BV (BGN) has introduced an item-based radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag system at a new store in Almere, the Netherlands. BGN will distribute the system throughout its 42 stores, which jointly carry about 2.2 million books on their bookshelves. The company has planned to expand the program next to a retail store which will be opening on October 2006 in Maastricht. Jan Vink, the information technology director of the BGN has said that the RFID system financed at 650,000 dollars and each of the passive tags being affixed to books will cost about 12 cents. The RFID system will trace a book's shipment status from the warehouse until it arrives at the store.