Which chewing-gum brand was first scanned with a Universal Product Code in 1974?

Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit was the first branded product scanned with a Universal Product Code in 1974.

The historic scan took place on 26 June 1974 at a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. A packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum was chosen because it was inexpensive, commonly purchased, and easy to handle at the checkout. The scan demonstrated that a machine could read the new standardized barcode and retrieve a product’s price from a store computer.

The UPC itself was developed through an industry effort led by the grocery trade, with George Laurer designing the familiar version used in American supermarkets. The barcode did not store the price; it identified the product, while the store’s computer supplied the current price. The gum packet from the event is preserved at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, although the original barcode was printed on a separate label.