Manufacturing and Printing: The Barcode That Changed Retail

At 8:01am on 26 June 1974, a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum was scanned at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio — the first product ever sold using a barcode. It's one of the most consequential printed marks in modern manufacturing, and it started with something as small as a stick of gum.

The First Scan

Clyde Dawson, Marsh Supermarkets' head of research and development, deliberately chose the Wrigley's gum as a nod to the company's own role in helping develop the new Universal Product Code standard. The barcode itself, a rectangular pattern of vertical stripes with a 12-digit number, was designed by IBM engineer George Laurer, chosen over a circular "bull's-eye" design because it printed more reliably. Reaction wasn't immediately positive — some shoppers worried it would let stores hide or inflate prices, and adoption was slow through the rest of the 1970s.

Why a Printed Mark Changed Manufacturing

The barcode's real significance wasn't the checkout beep, it was what it made possible behind the scenes: automated inventory tracking, just-in-time stock replenishment, and a supply chain that could actually see, in real time, what was selling and what wasn't. None of that was possible until a printed code could be read by a machine reliably and cheaply.

Printed Marks Are Still Doing This Job

Barcodes, QR codes and printed labels remain the physical link between a manufactured product and the digital systems tracking it — stock control, traceability, and increasingly, a scannable link to more product information than a label could ever print. It's the same basic idea from 1974, just with more layers on top.

Where This Shows Up in What We Print

We print stickers and labels for product identification, packaging and branding through our business stationery & publications range.

Frequently asked questions

What was the first product ever scanned with a barcode?

A pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum, scanned at 8:01am on 26 June 1974 at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

Who designed the barcode?

IBM engineer George Laurer designed the rectangular Universal Product Code, chosen over an earlier circular design because it printed more reliably at small sizes.

Do you print labels and stickers?

Yes, in circle, square and rectangle formats, through our business stationery range.

The patent that came twenty-two years before the gum

The Marsh scan was the end of a long road, not the start. Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver filed their application for a "Classifying Apparatus and Method" on 20 October 1949, and it was granted as US Patent 2,612,994 on 7 October 1952. Their drawings included a linear pattern of bars and a bull's-eye of concentric circles that could be read from any direction. The Uniform Grocery Product Code Council only chose the bar design that reached shops in 1973, so an industry agreement on one scheme was needed before a printed pattern could be trusted at a till.

That agreement is the part people forget. A barcode is only as useful as the number inside it, and manufacturers had to accept that one shared system would identify their goods, whoever stocked them. The same lesson applies to anything you print for a product today: the printing is the easy bit, the agreed standard behind it is what makes it work.

How Britain got its own scan

Europe built its version of the numbering system under the European Article Numbering Association, which was set up in Brussels in 1977. The first live UK scan took place on 2 October 1979 at Key Markets in Spalding, Lincolnshire, according to GS1 UK, whose own timeline records the product as a box of Melrose tea bags. Barcodes then spread through British retail steadily rather than overnight. GS1 UK records around 25,000 scanning stores by 1996, and in 1987 the music industry body required that only EAN-barcoded products could enter the charts.

For a small manufacturer or maker today, the practical consequence is that a barcode number comes from the standards body, not from a printer. A printer can only reproduce what you supply, sharply and at a readable size. If you sell through marketplaces, check what the platform expects before you commission any packaging or labels.

The square code that outgrew the car factory

Linear barcodes hold a short number. Manufacturers wanted to attach far more data to a part or a crate, so in 1994 Masahiro Hara and a team at Denso Wave, a Japanese automotive components company, created the QR code to label car parts. One square could replace many individual labels on a box. Denso Wave chose not to enforce its key patent for codes that follow the published standard, which is a large part of why the format spread so widely, and the standard is now ISO/IEC 18004.

QR codes have four error-correction levels, and the higher levels let a code survive more damage. That has a direct practical meaning for printed matter. If a code is going on a sticker, flyer or garment, a bigger code with quiet space around it and strong contrast will scan more reliably than a tiny, busy one.

Print checks that save a failed batch

• Contrast first. Dark code on a plain light background reads best. Pale ink on a coloured fill is the usual reason a code fails.
• Size for the scanning distance. A code on a wall poster needs to be far larger than one on a hang tag.
• Leave a clear border. Do not let artwork, folds or trims run into the edges of the code.
• Test the proof on real devices. Scan the proof with more than one phone before approving anything for print.
• Check the link destination. Printed codes outlive web pages, so point them at an address you control and intend to keep.

What the law expects on a textile label

If your factory or workshop makes or sells garments, there is a rule that sits alongside all this printing. GOV.UK guidance says a textile label must show the fibre content, and where a product has components with different fibre contents, each one must be shown. Manufacturers and retailers share responsibility for getting that right. A printed design on the outside of a garment does not replace a compliant label, so ask the garment source what is stitched or printed inside before you plan the artwork.

Clothing for the people who make the product

Plenty of manufacturing print never touches the product. It is on the people. Printed polos or T-shirts help visitors and new starters recognise staff, and a name or department printed on the chest saves time on a busy floor. For workers who need protective equipment, Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 section 9 means an employer cannot charge a worker for PPE that is used only at work, according to HSE. That is a rule about protective equipment, not about ordinary branded clothing, so keep the two lists separate when you budget.

For a site team, the printing choices that matter are:

1. Placement. A left-chest logo and a larger back print serve different purposes, so decide which one the garment is for.

2. Contrast against the garment. Dark designs on dark fabric vanish, which is where proofs earn their keep.

3. Hi-vis cover. We print hi-vis waistcoats, but do not assume a print makes a garment suitable for a particular risk. The compliance decision stays with whoever supplies and signs off the safety equipment.

4. Names or numbers. Individual names help in a large workforce, though they make an order more complicated to proof.

Labels, stickers and the shop floor

Short-run stickers suit product identification, batch marking on cartons, asset tags and trade-show giveaways, and a sticker proof is quick to check against the number or code it carries. Our stationery and publications printing covers the paper side of this. For team clothing, our workwear, hi-vis and scrubs guide explains what can be printed on each garment.

When you request a quote, say what the item is for, how many people need one and when you need it by, and order well before your date. There is no minimum order, and a discount applies on five or more items. We show a proof before anything is printed.

Who got the first barcode patent?

Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, in an application filed on 20 October 1949 and granted on 7 October 1952. Their design was not the one that reached supermarkets, which was the later IBM bar pattern.

When was the first barcode scanned in the UK?

GS1 UK records the first UK scan as 2 October 1979 at Key Markets in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

Why was the QR code created?

Denso Wave created it in 1994 to track automotive parts. It carried far more information than a conventional barcode.

Does printed clothing have to carry a fibre label?

Textile products placed on the UK market need a label showing fibre content under UK labelling rules. Ask the garment source what the label shows before you finalise print artwork.