What is in a barcode, anyway?

Well it depends…. if you are the a patron of The Down One Bar and Grill, your idea of a bar code is much different than the one I speak to this evening.

The barcode I am interested in is the one that came on your box of pencils, your socks, your pineapple, your blue jeans, or your favorite book.  The one with the skinny and fat lines… all in a little box on the side of the package.  THAT barcode.

Today marked the anniversary of the very first barcode being scanned.

It was a Thursday morning.  Up in Troy, Ohio of all places.  That is when the first unique sticker of white and black lines was magically “seen” by the red light.  It was a purchase of a 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gum.  Yep,the bar code was scanned at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974 at a Marsh supermarket in our own little Troy.  Why this locations, and circumstances, I do not know.

The first 10 scanners used to scan bar codes at the supermarket are now in The Smithsonian National Museum of American History.  The technology may be old… but it is far from obsolete.  The original inventor was George Laurer.  The dude HAD to be an OCD child, like me… I would suppose.  But he is the Father of the UPC.

I am glad for the bar code reader. Truly.  I can remember the day of price tags, and manually punching the keys on the old cash register.  You would have to hit the big “add” button and then move on to the next item.  The register made a great sound every time you rung something up.  Like a big… ka-chunk.  And when it was all done… the grand total made a ka-CHING.

Now, all we get is a beep.  And registers no longer ka-chunk or ka-ching.

Yet the bar code reader is an expediter.  Accurate, dependable, and universal.  Like the stealth bomber of the shopping world.

So…. I suppose…..  today, must be a big dang day for the barcode reader.. and for Juicy Fruit gum.  Not to mention the pride and joy Mr. and Mrs. Lauer must be feeling about their son.  And of course, Marsh Supermarkets… for having hosted such a distinction.

In fact, Marsh is so proud, that I got a free pack of Juicyfruit when I went through the checkout line today.

But I must warn you.  Such technology isn’t without controversy.  It becomes very easy to “track” things with the bar code, or the UPC code as we know them now.  The whole Big Brother thing.

So, if someone wants to tattoo a bar code on your forehead… or such.
Well.  Get your butt out of The Down One Bar and Grill.  I think that sort of thing goes against the Bar Code.  And, if you  have downed one too many… you never know what may happen.   After the beep.

“Doubt is the father of invention.”  –   Galileo Galilei