Scanning the Future: How Barcodes Revolutionized Retail and Beyond

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I never realized how much tech goes into something as seemingly simple as a barcode! Those little black and white stripes on everything we buy are actually pretty fascinating when you think about it.

So barcode systems first showed up in stores around 1973, and they quickly spread to supermarkets, clothing stores, libraries, and even airports for baggage tracking. The whole idea was developed in the early 70s as a much faster and more accurate way to enter data compared to the tedious keyboard typing that was prone to errors.

Each barcode is actually a clever series of numbers in binary code (using just 0s and 1s). The first number tells you what type of product it is, the next five identify the manufacturer, another five describe the product itself (color, weight, size, etc.), and there’s even a “check digit” at the end that helps verify all the numbers are correct. If the scanner calculates a different check digit than what’s printed, it knows there’s an error.

When scanned at checkout, the barcode sends product info to the store’s computer, which matches it with pricing data and sends it to the register. Beyond just speeding up checkout, barcodes revolutionized inventory management – stores can now track exactly what they’ve sold, what’s selling well, and when to reorder products.

The technology behind scanners has evolved impressively. The earliest ones were simple “wand scanners” that had to be placed directly against a clean, flat barcode to work. By the mid-1970s, laser scanners emerged that could read barcodes from several inches away.

The real game-changer came in 1980 with holographic scanners, which use a spinning disk of holograms to project a 3D laser beam. This means they can read barcodes from almost any angle – no need to perfectly position the item. That’s why grocery store scanners can read a barcode no matter how you wave the product past them. These holographic scanners are still the most reliable and sophisticated option in supermarkets today.

Even something as simple as mail sorting has been transformed – the POSTNET barcode system used by the US Postal Service can automatically sort mail at a rate of 700 pieces per minute!

Looking at barcodes now, I can appreciate how this seemingly simple technology really changed how we shop and how businesses operate. And to think it all started with just some black and white stripes!