A ten-pack of Wrigley's chewing gum became the first retail product scanned using the Universal Product Code at a supermarket checkout in Troy, Ohio. The UPC, a standardized barcode symbol adopted by a U.S. grocery industry committee in 1973, allowed products to be identified automatically at checkout and tracked through inventory systems. Adoption spread gradually through the later 1970s and 1980s as retailers invested in scanning equipment. The barcode later became a foundation for computerized inventory management across global retail and logistics.
Relevance to Trade History
The barcode created the data backbone that made modern automated inventory tracking, and later global supply chain visibility, technically possible.
Read the full story in our article Barcodes and the Automation of Product Tracking.
Source: Smithsonian National Museum of American History. See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.