Merry Christmas from the barcode brigade
Updated Dec 21, 2020;
Barcodes first saw the light of day back in 1951. The first ones were round. It took decades before today’s familiar black vertical parallel lines replaced the round ones. These really took off when they became the Universal Product Code.
Barcodes are now used around the world. They are preprinted on just about every item you will find in grocery stores and supermarkets except for the fresh produce. Barcodes also show up in hospitals, clinics, rental cars, mail and parcels, tickets, luggage, even nuclear waste.
So what do these ubiquitous barcodes do? Well, they keep track of inventory, pricing, deliveries, re-ordering, tracking from manufacturer to end user, and much more. Stores large and small will be hard-pressed to operate without barcodes.