First UPC Scan

The first UPC scan showed that a barcode, a laser scanner and a computer could replace manual price entry, starting the system that fulfillment centers now use to receive, pick, pack and count inventory. The grocery industry had chosen the Universal Product Code in 1973, based on a symbol developed at IBM by George Laurer, two decades after the first barcode patent. The Troy checkout used an NCR system with a Spectra-Physics scanner, and one of the original scanners is now at the Smithsonian. Every UPC or GTIN scan on a warehouse handheld, from receiving to pack verification, traces back to this test, and order accuracy depends on it.

• Universal Product CodeUPC12-digit retail barcode used in North America
• Global Trade Item NumberGTINGS1 product identifier used worldwide
• RF ScannerWireless barcode scanner used in a warehouse

• George Laurer1925–2019 · IBM engineer who designed the UPC
• Norman Joseph Woodland1921–2012 · Co-inventor of the barcode
• Bernard Silver1924–1963 · Co-inventor of the barcode

• Barcode Patent1952 · Woodland and Silver patent a code of printed lines
• European Article Numbering (EAN) Standard1977 · Europe adopts a 13-digit barcode matching the UPC

1. First UPC Barcode Retail Scan, Ohio Historical Marker 35-55 (Remarkable Ohio) remarkableohio.org
2. The history of the barcode (GS1 UK) gs1uk.org