The purpose of the RFID wouldn’t be to catch thieves, but to train the AI. As the AI gets better at detecting things, you reduce how many of the products are tagged. I’m seeing something like $0.30/ea on Amazon, ~$0.10/ea on Ali Express. I’m guessing an org like Amazon could get them even cheaper. I don’t know how well those work on cans, so maybe it’s a no-go, IDK.
Barcodes could probably work fine too, provided they’re big enough to be visible clearly to cameras.
Regardless, it seems like there are options aside from hiring a bunch of people to watch cameras. I’m interested to hear from someone more knowledgeable about why I’m wrong or whether they’re actually already doing something like this. I don’t live near any of the stores, so I can’t just go and see for myself (and are they still a thing?).