Happy Birthday barcode
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2023
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The barcode has become an essential part of the modern world. There are 10 billion barcode scans every day and they are used on products in every country.
It started as a few lines drawn in the Florida sand and today it turns 50. It changed the way we shop and trade, without them global supply chains could not function.
Presenter / producer: Sam Fenwick Image: Barcode; Credit: Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | abnormal transactions. |
| 0:03.0 | Some kind of cyber attack on a bank. |
| 0:05.1 | Tens of millions of dollars. |
| 0:07.0 | Something I don't think anybody has seen before. |
| 0:09.1 | It's a cybercriminal group. |
| 0:10.7 | From the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.5 | The Lazarus Heist is back for season two. |
| 0:14.7 | It was really like in the movies. |
| 0:16.2 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:22.8 | The bleep, bleep of the barcode scanner has become ubiquitous in all of our lives. |
| 0:29.5 | I'm here at my local supermarket and everything in my trolley has a barcode on it. |
| 0:34.6 | From this big bag of frozen peas to individually priced fruit like this |
| 0:43.8 | avocado. And did you know that every car built since 1981 has a barcode? They're on scannable tickets, |
| 0:52.8 | and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we use them to read restaurant menus. |
| 0:57.6 | The barcode is everywhere. |
| 1:00.3 | It's one of the most important innovations of the 20th century. |
| 1:04.4 | Without them, global supply chains couldn't function, |
| 1:08.0 | and shoppers like you and me wouldn't be able to pay for our weekly groceries. |
| 1:12.5 | Okay, lovely. |
| 1:15.2 | That's £42 to £8 to £7, please. |
| 1:18.7 | Okay, thank you very much. |
| 1:20.3 | What do you think of the barcode? |
... |
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