ORLANDO, Fla. — The 35th anniversary of the Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code will be celebrated tomorrow by GS1 US, the developer and administrator of the UPC, at the organization’s annual U Connect Conference here.
The event will be marked with a giant UPC-adorned birthday cake for the more than 800 attendees at the conference. The first live use of a UPC took place in a Marsh store in Troy, Ohio, on June 26, 1974, when a cashier scanned a package of Wrigley’s gum.
“The UPC. made the modern retail store possible,” said Rodney McMullen, vice chairman of Kroger, in a statement. “It allows us to carry tens of thousands of items in a given store and move shoppers through quickly while offering them many different ways to save money.”
Added Bob Carpenter, chief executive officer of GS1 US, “The UPC really is fundamental to commerce. And it has a lot of life left in it.”
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