Was Wal-Mart (WMT ) pulling out of trial with Gillette (G ) a big setback?
No, I think that has been spun the wrong way. I think it’s a case of the glass being three-fourths full rather than one-fourth empty. The reasons I say that is that 40 companies have been enrolled in the field trail. And it was targeting three things: pallets, cases, and items. In my wildest dream I didn’t think items would be announced by 2005. In my less wild dreams I didn’t think cases would be adopted as early as they have been. I know the items didn’t happen after there was some news about privacy advocates. So people have juxtaposed the two. But I don’t see it that way at all. Q: So it’s not about the privacy backlash? A: It might be a distraction. You don’t want to get involved in an argument right now, because it’s moot. It’s a distraction, and perhaps it played a role from that point of view. But it wasn’t really a structural change. I don’t think there’s any fundamental change in the sponsors’ interest in this technology. If anything, it has sharpened. Q: When will we start t
