Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY) announced a strategic collaboration on Wednesday to implement a new radio-frequency identification technology in Walmart’s (NYSE:WMT) fresh food departments, such as bakery, meat, and deli.
The first-of-its-kind solution was highlighted as employing RFID-enabled labels and sensor technology specifically designed for high-moisture, cold environments like meat cases, overcoming longstanding industry barriers. The advancement is expected to allow Walmart (WMT) associates to track inventory more quickly and accurately, ensuring products remain available for shoppers, improving efficiency, and supporting smarter product rotation and markdown decisions based on digital use-by dates.
The initiative aims to reduce unsold food and food waste, directly supporting Walmart’s (WMT) goal to cut global operational food loss and waste intensity in half by 2030. Both companies operate at a massive scale, with Walmart serving 270 million weekly customers and Avery Dennison generating $8.8 billion in 2024 sales across over 50 countries.
“We believe technology should make things easier for both our associates and our customers,” stated Christyn Keef, VP of Front End Transformation for Walmart U.S.