While some suppliers, like Daisy Brand, quickly jumped on board, most were less amenable to the plan.

Part of the problem was that the plan was unveiled before the RFID industry was ready for it, users and analysts said. There were no standards, the technology was in its infancy, prices were high, and fly-by-night vendors and consultants littered the industry.

Wal-Mart unit Sam's Club recently announced an RFID plan for its distribution centers.

"Gosh, if [someone] could spell 'RFID,' it seemed they thought they could hang out a shingle," said Tom Shields, educational technology service and RFID manager at Texas Instruments Inc. (TI), which became compliant with Wal-Mart's requirements in January 2006.

He noted that after Wal-Mart issued the RFID mandate, "there were [suppliers] hemorrhaging money to become compliant." Most were shooting in the dark, trying to implement the technology without having any examples to follow, Shields said.

At the same time, Wal-Mart needed to get its own RFID house in order, according to some analysts.

For example, the company was slow to install RFID equipment in its own stores. John Simley, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said that at least some RFID technology is used in 1,300 of about 3,600 U.S. stores today. Most have full implementations, though some are just getting started, he noted.

The retailer won't comment on whether it plans to resume the program, or discuss a schedule for installing RFID technology in the remaining Wal-Mart stores.

John Fontanella, an analyst at AMR Research Inc., also noted that Wal-Mart disbanded an internal RFID program office in the months after the mandate, transferring responsibility for the program to a general operations department. Simley declined to discuss the office.

"I think they were very visionary for [seeing] the potential for RFID, but the infrastructure to support that vision was still being built," Shields said. "The lack of infrastructure, the cost and all the troubles created the perfect storm" that slowed RFID adoption, he noted.

Although Wal-Mart's mandate has been abandoned at least for the time being, it has led to some successful RFID implementations.

For example, TI has been tagging pallets and cases of goods shipped to Wal-Mart for two years. And Shields said the company is ready, should other major retailers, such as Target Corp., move to RFID.

Shields credited TI's patience for its successful implementation of the Wal-Mart RFID program.

The electronics provider researched options for implementing RFID for 18 months before spending a single dollar on equipment, he said. The company now tags only shipments headed to Wal-Mart, thus minimizing RFID hardware investments.