2.0 History
Merchandise tracking is an invaluable tool in trade. Without it, items would have to be keyed in by hand. Global business would not be nearly as efficient as it is today.
The earliest computerized standard was a punch card system developed in the 1930s. As electronic computers came to be, better standards arose. Iterations of barcode-like systems led to a collective of trade organizations forming a single bar. They founded the nonprofit Uniform Product Code Council (UPCC), known today as GS1. In 1973, the UPC became the standard. (GS1, n.d.).
On a mild, cloudy day in Troy, Ohio, on the 26th of June, 1973, history was made at the Marsh supermarket. An unassuming NCR cash register at the Marsh supermarket would make history before the end of morning news broadcasts. A ten-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum scanned at sixty-three cents. That pack of chewing gum was the first product labeled with a UPC to pass through a register. (Heller, 2005).
EAN (European Article Number, AKA International Article Number) is another standard for product lookup on the retail level. EAN-13 is the standard, an offshoot of UPC-A. An exciting issue exists between EAN-13 and UPC-A. Any EAN-13 system can scan UPC-A, but not the other way around. Because the UPC-A system uses 12 digits, and the EAN-13 uses 13, EAN-13 systems can decode UPC-A barcodes. Therefore, when an EAN-13 scanner captures a UPC-A product, the system registers an extra 0. This extra digit is added to the beginning and thus has little effect.
UPCs have severe limitations. Due to its specifications, only 100 billion unique are possible with UPC-A. UPC-E is even more limited, with only 2 million. Despite sounding like a non-issue, when we think of items with multiple sizes and colors, such as apparel, each has its unique UPC number.