Wal-Mart met with its top 100 vendors in November of 2003 to inform them of their plans to begin using RFID to track Cases and Pallets. By January 2005, Wal-Mart expects to be able to track 100% of the pallets from these vendors that come through their dock doors. By the end of 2005, they expect to be able to track all cases and pallets from these vendors. By the end of the following year, they expect to be using RFID to track all pallets and cases from all of its US suppliers.

Wal-Mart expects to use the UHF spectrum (868 MHz to 956MHz.) and they plan to use a 96 bit EPC (Electronic Product Code).

The impact of Wal-Mart's directive is enormous considering that they control 17% of the worldwide retail market and that they receive over 5 billion cases and pallets each year. Some have estimated that RFID technology can save Wal-Mart over 1 billion dollars per year.

The Department of Defense has issued a similar requirement, much like that of Wal-Mart's, to its top vendors.

Costco Wholesale, one of the largest US warehouse club operators, is said to be looking at RFID as well.