UPC

By 1974, the committee’s work was mostly done, and UPC barcodes were ready to launch.

On June 26, 1974, the first UPC barcode was scanned on a pack of Wrigley’s gum at a grocery store in Troy, Ohio.

The backlash began basically as soon as the UPC launched.

In a particularly notable example in late 1974 described by Paul V. McEnroe—an engineer who was involved in the development of the UPC—protestors gathered outside a Giant Supermarket in Tysons Corner, Virginia, that was installing barcode systems and briefly stopped the store from opening.

Tagging each item required significant labor, and one of the primary reasons grocery stores developed the UPC barcode was to remove the labor costs required by item-level pricing and instead put product prices on shelves.