[ChrisMarshallNY]

Macy’s tears the tag, adds a red “sold tag,” and enters the number into their system, so you can’t just grab something off the rack, and return it.

This was because people would grab something off the rack, tear off the tags, take it to the register, and request a refund. It wasn’t even shoplifting.

[bluedino]

I don't remember doing that when I worked there. But plenty of people would try that exact scam, or buy something and then use the receipt to try to return the same item that they just grabbed off a shelf.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I think they only started doing that, in the last few years.

The red tag has a barcode (and nothing else). They have a strip of them, next to the register.

You hand them the item, they tear off the bottom of the price tag, stick on the red tag, then scan it.

[yardstick]

So this also means you cannot return something without the red tag still intact?

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I don’t know.

I suspect you don’t need the tag, but you’ll need the receipt, otherwise.

[specialist]

That (obvious) strategy would have never occurred to me. I's make a terrible criminal (or pentester).

[Symbiote]

I noticed socks I bought from Uniqlo had an RFID tag in the label. Maybe that's for the same reason? They know which items haven't been sold.

[__float]

It's (also?) used for self-checkout: put all of the items in a box, and it tallies up your total automatically, without scanning individual items.

[csydas]

It's one aspect. Uniqlo also uses them for faster ring ups at the counter. They just stack you items over the reader and it gets every tag nice and fast with a final sight check by the cashier that they got everything.

I'm not sure but I think it has a weight systém also to help with catching missed items but this I might be wrong on.