The First Commercial Product Scanned with a Barcode Was Gum

Before the now-familiar "beep" of a checkout scanner, ringing up groceries was a slow and error-prone process. Cashiers had to manually find and enter the price of every single item, leading to long lines and frequent mistakes. To solve this inefficiency, a consortium of grocery industry leaders collaborated to create a standardized system for identifying products. The result was the Universal Product Code, or UPC, a unique pattern of black bars and numbers that could be read almost instantly by an optical scanner, a technology that was still brand new to the public.

The system's first official public test took place on June 26, 1974, at a Marsh supermarket in the small town of Troy, Ohio. The store had been specially equipped with a new scanner, and the chosen product for this historic moment was a simple, everyday item: a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit (Review) chewing gum. When the cashier scanned the 67-cent purchase, it marked the beginning of a retail revolution. That single transaction demonstrated the speed, accuracy, and efficiency that would soon transform not just the checkout line, but the entire global supply chain. The humble pack of gum that ushered in a new era of commerce is now preserved as a significant artifact at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.