Bye Bye Barcode

I was 13 years old and I was starting my first proper job helping out at Vals News in Brixham earning a whopping ￡2.50 per hour. Most of the time I was dealing with the newspapers but eventually I was promoted to stocking shelves which came with the most satisfying piece of equipment I think I have ever used – the Pricing gun! There is no more satisfying sound of the CLICK CLICK CHUNK as you price up a whole row of Marathon Bars in under 20 seconds leaving a row of yellow stickers showing slightly faded prices already peeling off the wrappers.

Eventually things moved on, Val’s News became Brixham Wine Cellers, I had been promoted to using the tills and with it my wage improved… marginally! Marathon became Snickers, but the pricing gun was no more, replaced by the futuristic BEEP machine that shot lasers at anything within it’s gaze.?No more CLICK CLICK CHUNK and remembering how much a Mars Bar cost (30p) so you can challenge the man who has come in and swapped it with the sticker from a Fudge bar (15p), the BEEP machine knew the answer and therefore so did I!

The BEEP machine could only work though because of the Barcode, a weird black and white stripy thing of wonder and magic that seemed to hold all the information I could ever need about anything I ever needed to know information on. The barcode was invented in 1952 and first used in retail to scan a pack of Wrigleys chewing gum in 1974 so it’s about right that it hit Brixham in the 90’s. Chewing gum, newpapers, magazines and beer were soon feeling the gaze of the mighty BEEP machine in my hands.

At 21 I left retail and never thought much about barcodes again until self service checkouts came into being and I could relive my youth in my own private way.

But the barcode is now being replaced by a digital upstart that really will know everything about anything you fancy spending your hard earned money on. Similar to the QR code we all got used to using during Covid the 2D barcode will be able to show you everything you could ever want to know about the product in front of you, where it came from, what environmental credentials it holds, even if there is a Product Recall on it already all from the camera in your hand.

For retails and suppliers of products this means even more than now end clients are going to want this information. ?We are already so led by algorithms and AI that the data is hugely important if you want to be found online but now it’s going to be wanted in store. Imagine it, you go to a shop to try on a jacket, you scan a code and see that it was made 2 months ago by Mavis in Birmingham using leather from a cow on the edge of Exmoor, it could change the way you shop. More relevantly you will be able to buy a drill, see what power it uses, it’s torque and access relevant manuals and certificates from right in the store you are buying it from. Being able to go into a shop and find out more about the product I’m buying right there and then might even make me spend more as I can buy with more confidence.

I can’t say I’m going to miss the Barcode too much, it’s hardly pretty and actually gives me a lot less information than I thought when I was working in a small shop in 1994. Being able to go and get the information about a product while it’s in my hand and I can physically test the quality for myself feels like a big step so bring it on I say. Can we just work on the BEEP, lets make it something a little less jarring!