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Implementation |
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Services
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Numbers In the History of the
Universal Product Code |
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1952 |
Joseph Woodland receives a patent for a bar code and scanner, which uses a 500-watt incandescent light bulb and a photo-multiplier designed for movie sound systems. |
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4-3-73 |
An Ad Hoc Committee composed of grocery industry executives chooses the linear bar code with 11 digits as the present day Universal Product Code. |
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6-26-74 |
A package of Wrigley's chewing gum is the first grocery item scanned using the Universal Product Code in a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. |
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1-1-05 |
The deadline for American retailers to upgrade their scanners to be able to read the EAN-13 code. |
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$10,000 |
The average price per check out scanner that grocery stores had to invest when Universal Product Code technology first came into use. |
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10s of
millions |
The estimated amount of bar codes that are in existence. With every separate item holding a different bar code, such as a blue versus a black pen, there is no exact figure to the amount of bar codes in existence. |
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$150
million |
Industry executives estimated in 1974, that the grocery industry would save millions if they changed to an automated checkout system using the Universal Product Code. |
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