The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a barcode technology used on consumer goods and grocery items, allowing for faster and more accurate payment processing. The UPC system uses a 12-digit code, with a six-digit company prefix and a five-digit product identifier. The technology was proposed in the 1940s but was not commercialized until the 1970s when IBM demonstrated the system on a packet of chewing gum. Since then, UPC has expanded beyond supermarkets and has become a cultural symbol.
The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a symbol commonly found on the packaging of consumer goods and grocery items. It uses barcode technology that allows a product number to be represented in a format that machines can understand and increases the speed and accuracy of the payment process. The concept of using machine-readable symbols for more efficient purchasing dates back to at least the 1940s, but limited technology prevented the idea from gaining acceptance until the 1970s. from grocery stores to many industries and has even become a cultural symbol.
Barcode technology, of which the UPC was an early application, allows a product’s numeric code to be represented by special symbols that are easily recognizable by automated scanners. Under the UPC system, a product or item number is encoded as a series of vertical bars with different widths and spacing. These bars are scanned by a machine at checkout and a computer or point-of-sale terminal checks the product number against a database that contains prices for every possible item in a store. This database can be updated at any time, allowing a store to change the price of an item without changing the barcode. The UPC system allows products to be scanned faster and more accurately than manual entry by a human worker, an improvement estimated to have saved retailers tens of billions of dollars a year since the 1970s when the system was introduced.
Some very specific rules have been established to govern the structure of a universal product code, which is generally 12 digits long. Manufacturers must request a six-digit company prefix, which will become the first six numbers of any universal product code assigned to that company’s products. Another five digits are used to identify a specific product or package, and a final number known as a check digit can be used to catch any errors that may have occurred during the scan. The first number in a company prefix also specifies the type of product being scanned: 0,1,6, and 7 for general merchandise, 2 for variable weight items such as produce, 3 for pharmaceuticals, 4 for shipping purposes only. store and 5 for coupons.
Automated scanning using machine-readable symbols had been proposed since the 1940s, but the primitive technology of the time thwarted attempts to commercialize the idea. By the 1970s, however, optical scanning technology had improved enough that supermarkets were interested in the idea. IBM, in response to a request for automated scanning proposals from a supermarket consortium, demonstrated a system that encoded numbers into a series of vertical bars and, in 1974, the universal product code on a packet of IBM chewing gum. Wrigley became the first product in history to be scanned and purchased using the technology. After a slow take-off in supermarkets during the 1970s and 80s, UPC expanded beyond supermarkets into other retail areas and even became a cultural icon, being featured in creative outlets ranging from art exhibitions to fictional television. scientific.
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