The Universal Product Code

After watching the documentary on Wal-Mart in class Wednesday, what really changed in terms of labor or consumption due to the introduction of automation and/or information technology is the implementation of the universal product code (UPC), a specific type of barcode. The idea of a barcode was developed in 1932 by Wallace Flint, who proposed an automotive checkout system using punch-cards in his college master’s thesis. The idea fell flat because of the recession and lack of technological capabilities, but was picked up again in 1948 when Bernard Silver and Joseph Woodland developed a system based off of two previous technologies- Morse code and movie soundtracks. Extending the dots and dashes to create varied widths, coupled with reading the information through a tube that was designed for movies made in the 1920s. The tube translated the light reflected from the bar pattern into electronic waveforms, which led to the original message of the barcode. In the 1960’s railroads experimented with this process for tracking railcars, but eventually abandoned it. In the early 1970’s the development of laser light allowed the information present in the bars to be read quickly and from multiple angles. Kroger grocery chain became the “test rat” for bar code use. It worked well, sprouting several other systems across the country which caused a major problem- no uniformity in the system, bar codes weren’t recognized by certain scanners. This problem was solved on April 3rd, 1973 by George J. Laurer, who developed the UPC- a bar recognized by all scanners.

The information embedded in the UPC of certain products had translated into keeping in front of the curve for Wal-Mart. As explained by former Wal-Mart store manager Jon Lehman, the barcode is able to, "track sales on specific items specific weeks, specific days, specific hours of the day, when [they] sell merchandise the most." This has changed the entire method of communicating with the manufacturers, requesting products at a certain price based on what people are buying- a complete change from the days of old when the manufacturers held the power over the retailers.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/barcode.html