The Tiny Lines That Changed Shopping Forever: How Wrigley's Gum Made History
On June 26, 1974, a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum became the first product ever scanned with a barcode at a grocery store.
This happened at Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, when cashier Sharon Buchanan rang up the 67-cent pack of gum.
That simple transaction marked the beginning of a technology that would transform how people shop around the world.
The barcode system represented years of hard work by engineers and business leaders. Before barcodes existed, cashiers had to type in every price by hand or use price tags.
This process was slow and led to many mistakes. Store owners wanted a faster way to track their products and reduce errors at checkout.
Barcodes use a series of black and white lines of different widths. Each pattern represents a unique number that identifies the product.
When a scanner reads these lines, it sends the information to a computer system that looks up the price and product details.
This happens in less than a second, making checkout much faster than the old manual methods.
The team at Marsh Supermarket didn't pick Wrigley's gum by accident. They wanted a small, inexpensive item that people bought regularly.
Chewing gum was perfect because it was cheap enough that if something went wrong, the store wouldn't lose much money. The gum also had a simple package that worked well with the new scanning technology.
Once stores started using barcodes, they noticed major improvements right away. Checkout lines moved much faster because cashiers didn't have to type in prices manually.
Inventory tracking became more accurate since computers could automatically count what was sold. Store managers could also track which products were popular and which ones weren't selling well.
After the successful test at Marsh Supermarket, other stores quickly adopted barcode technology. Within ten years, most major grocery chains were using barcode scanners.
The system became so popular that manufacturers started putting barcodes on almost every product they made. Today, you can find barcodes on everything from food to clothing to electronics.
Barcodes didn't just change shopping - they revolutionized how businesses operate. Warehouses use barcodes to track shipments. Hospitals use them to track medical supplies and patient information.
Libraries use them to check out books. Even shipping companies use barcodes to follow packages as they travel around the world.
That pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum started something much bigger than anyone imagined in 1974. The barcode system became one of the most important business tools ever created.
Every time you buy something at a store and hear that familiar beep, you're participating in a process that began with a simple pack of chewing gum nearly fifty years ago.
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