Ram Puppy -
Coming from one of the people that installs Wal-Marts anti-shoplifting systems, what the employee did was simple procedure, nothing personal. They have rules they have to follow every time a system alarms and they have to document the cause of every alarm in a journal. Also, when you carry something into a store such as a purse or backpack, they have the right to search it or make you leave it outside as the store is private property. The greater at the door was simply doing his job, nothing more.

Unfortunately, most cashiers (especially Wal-Mart) are not properly trained and/or could care less about properly deactivating tags. You would be surprised how much stuff comes from the manufacturer with the tag inside the packaging or even inside the actual item to where it cannot be removed by a shoplifter. Even some clothing now comes with tags sewn inside the material.

As a side note, if you are going to boycott Wal-Mart, don't do it for this reason. If you want to boycott them, do it because they are slowly becoming a shopping monopoly and will be too powerful to stop in the future. If Sam Walton were still alive today, he would be wealthier than most countries!

P.S. - The systems are not RFI, they are acousto-magnetic. Wal-mart is in testing stages of using new RFID technology at some of their distribution centers and will probably be the ones to push it into main stream use as it is too expensive currently. :-)