Certainly Staples are not using an $8 tag ...
for 8 cents pencils & candies and therefore using ABSY tags, it has only a half cocked inventory system. Any good bar coding or cheap RFID tags can do the job as good and well.
The lost of any tag will wipe out any profit made from the item.
For the high value, easy pilfered items, thieves know how to disable them if made visible and in the process, the $8 tag will also gone!
So dream on to gazillion of tags.