Security Watch | Matt Hines » Do you know about razor shrinkage?

October 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Do you know about razor shrinkage?

TAGS: Security

I was just reading this article about how the number of blades on men's razors seem to bee following the same track as Moore's law.

If you don't believe it, just go check out the Gillette web site discussing their new razor with 5 blades.

Of course reading about razors reminded me of a statistic that I recently heard which was that up to 50% of Mach 3 razor replacement blades are stolen in the supply chain. Euphemistically called 'shrinkage', theft of blades in the supply chain is a serious matter and increases end user cost, not to mention cutting into the profits of the manufacturer.

Now, I've always wondered why razor replacement blades cost so much. This amount of shrinkage would explain it. Seems that Gillette razors and George Costanza have something in common (of course I can't say the word shrinkage and not think Seinfeld).

Anyway, I presume that this was why WalMart decided that Razors were going to be the first product that was RFID tagged in the store. Too bad they didn't tell shoppers that.

I was going to post a shrinkage report here, but I just can't stop smirking long enough to create a link. Suffice to say it was nowhere near as amusing as the TV episode.

The point is that if we tag things then we can track them and reduce shrinkage in the supply chain. But we have to make sure that we have to balance lowering cost to consumers, increasing profit for businesses and making sure that privacy isn't compromised along the way.

Posted by Victor R. Garza on October 29, 2006 06:11 PM

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