I used to write about Wal-Mart here frequently at the RFID Weblog, until I just got bored.

I got bored hanging on to the every word of some Wal-Mart executive about their RFID supply chain initiative with suppliers.

I got bored with the interviews with suppliers (some of whom refused to be named) and analysts giving their reactions to the Wal-Mart mandate.

I got bored waiting for monumental things to happen in a short time frame, when in reality the initiative was bound to take years, not weeks, to see real results.

But I am back to writing about Wal-Mart, and it is to say: let's hope Wal-Mart does a better job with its RFID initiative than it does with its website.

Wal-Mart's eCommerce website was down for 10 hours on the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally one of the busiest shopping days in America.

Rob Preston, the Editor-in-Chief of Information Week, takes Wal-Mart to task for the website lapse:

Wal-Mart made a name for itself by using information technology not only to run a more efficient operation, but also to anticipate customer buying patterns and demand. Yet with its vast business intelligence gathering, and after promoting the Walmart.com relaunch and various product specials to the hilt, it had no way of knowing that customers would trample its Web infrastructure? It's one thing to run out of T.M.X. elmo or Tap Dancing Mumble; it's another to hang a "closed for business" sign on a critical sales channel on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, especially when your overall sales already were on pace to be disappointingly flat for the month.

Wal-Mart's Black Friday debacle smacks of the rampant site outages and slowdowns circa 2000. Remember how eBay, Victoria's Secret, Ellis Island, and scores of other sites folded under a crush of unanticipated traffic? In fact, Walmart.com's debacle this season smacks of the Walmart.com debacles circa 2000, so this is a recurring problem for the world's biggest and most influential retailer.

Wal-Mart actually took down its site for the entire 1999 holiday season, choosing to start fresh with more products and features on Jan. 1, 2000. Then, 10 months later, it shuttered its online store again so that it could relaunch it yet again, this time on an e-commerce platform it had acquired three months prior.

On the heels of that encouraging news, RFID Watch reports that Wal-Mart is ready to extend its RFID initiative to another 700 suppliers -- just in time for next year's holiday season. John R. Johnson writes:

The thought is that Wal-Mart will give the group nine months to comply, so that the manufacturers are ready to start shipping tagged cases and pallets in time for the 2007 holiday season. Sources say that Wal-Mart competitor Target, which has kept its RFID plans under wraps, wants to be a fast follower and is making sure it doesn't lose any ground to Wal-Mart.

If the timing of the RFID initiative is tied to another holiday season, then Wal-Mart needs to make sure its website does not collapse once again, in 2007.