What company manufactured the first product ever scanned with a barcode?

The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company manufactured the first product ever scanned with a barcode. On June 26, 1974, a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum became the first retail product scanned using a Universal Product Code, or UPC.

The historic checkout took place at a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, at approximately 8:01 a.m. The NCR register recorded the gum's price as 67 cents. The packet is now preserved at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, making an ordinary confectionery item an artifact of retail and computing history.

The achievement involved more than Wrigley. The grocery industry helped establish the Uniform Product Code Council in 1973, while IBM developed the barcode design that became the industry standard. Engineers George Laurer and David Savir played important roles in refining the symbol and its error-checking system.

The common mistake is answering IBM or NCR. IBM helped design the UPC, and NCR supplied the checkout equipment, but Wrigley manufactured the product that was actually scanned. The first scan was therefore a milestone in both manufacturing and retail technology.