Which product became the first retail item scanned with a UPC at Marsh Supermarket in 1974?

Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum became the first retail item scanned with a Universal Product Code at Marsh Supermarket in 1974.

The historic purchase took place at a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, on 26 June 1974. A 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gum was selected partly because its packaging could easily accommodate the new barcode. The cashier scanned the symbol, and the store’s computer recorded the sale.

The UPC had been developed by the grocery industry to speed checkout and improve inventory records. IBM engineer George Laurer designed the familiar linear symbol from an earlier concept developed by Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver.

The gum itself was not important because of its brand; it was simply the first item in a real retail transaction using the standardized system. Barcodes later spread far beyond supermarkets, becoming a basic identification technology across global retail.