The Barcode Label Makes Checking Out Efficient

Barcode labels are used on most products today. The system was developed in the last 60s as a way for the grocery stores to speed up the checkout process. It proved to be so efficient, that most businesses that sell products use it. For inventory tracking purposes it can also be used to let businesses know if they have too much or too little of an item.

How to Read Barcodes

If you look at a barcode label, it may look very foreign to you, but it is easy enough to read. The bars are the code that is read by the scanner. But sometimes, for various reasons, the label itself cannot be read. If you’ve ever been shopping and got an item where the UPC symbol is torn, you know that the scanner will probably not read it. In cases such as that, the cashier has to manually key in the UPC code. By looking at the barcode label, you can see numbers under the barcodes. When these numbers are typing into a register, it will bring up the same information as the scanner reading the barcode.

Each barcode label has a few different parts. One is the manufacturer’s identification number. That is the first six numbers you see on the label. The next set of five numbers if the product item number. Each product has to have a specific item number so the system can keep up with it. If two different items accidentally have the same item number on their barcode label, it can wreak havoc on both the pricing and inventory system. It is the UPC coordinator’s job to make sure mistakes such as that do not happen. The final number found on the barcode label is the check digit. When the scanner reads the barcode, this final number helps it verify that the barcode has been read correctly.