It’s great when retailers bring new technology innovations to the market. It’s even pretty good when they adapt not-so-new innovations to their processes in ways that help customers and/or the bottom line. What isn’t so great is taking credit for a technology that’s been around for a while — presumably because it makes for a better news release than saying, “We’re finally adopting a technology that’s been around for a few decades. Yay us!”

Consider a May 19 blog post from Keri Jones, Target’s executive vice president for global supply chain and operations. Jones, who had been touting how well the chain’s mobile apps were doing, took a detour to say that not all innovations happen in mobile, nor are they necessarily customer-facing. True. Then she went for the whopper: “Developing the kinds of behind-the-scenes technologies that quietly help Target stay ahead of guests’ changing behaviors can be the most exciting. Technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) — which I’m thrilled to announce Target will roll out later this year.”

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