Who Invented the Barcode and How It Changed the World
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, you may see them everywhere today, but the UPC barcode didn’t become commonplace until well into the 1970s. What had started as a simple idea to speed up checkout lines took decades to develop, requiring advances in computing, scanning tech, and cooperation across different industries.
When the first barcode was scanned in 1974, it marked the beginning of a silent revolution. Retailers could track inventory more accurately, businesses could move products more efficiently, and everyday shopping was transformed in ways most people never noticed.
Our regular contributor, The History Guy, shares the story of the barcode, how it came to be, why it took so long to catch on, and how it changed the way the world buys and sells goods forever.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:14.2 | And we continue with our American stories. |
| 0:18.0 | Our next story comes to us from a man who's simply known as the History Guy. |
| 0:22.6 | His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of all ages over on YouTube. |
| 0:27.6 | The History Guy is also heard here at Our American Stories. |
| 0:32.6 | Barcodes on most products properly called a UPC or universal product code are a necessity for everyday |
| 0:41.4 | life. |
| 0:42.4 | Here's the history guy with the story. |
| 0:46.1 | They become so common that they're on virtually every consumer product that you might |
| 0:49.3 | buy from a box of cookies to an action figure to every automobile that has been built since 1981. |
| 0:58.1 | They're on mail, they're on scannable tickets. In COVID concerns, they were used to access |
| 1:02.9 | restaurant menus. Barcodes have become so ubiquitous that we take them for granted. But barcodes |
| 1:09.0 | are an absolute necessity in the modern world. |
| 1:12.6 | There would allow the vast and complex trade networks and supply chains of the modern world to function. |
| 1:19.6 | According to GS1, which is a nonprofit that maintains barcode standards, there were some 5 billion barcode scanned every day. In 2012, it is |
| 1:30.3 | history that deserves to be remembered. Humans have engaged in trade for millennia, far back |
| 1:36.7 | into prehistory. For most of human existence, this was done by bartering, impromptu trading |
| 1:41.0 | sessions that involve personal negotiations of goods and services without any money involved. |
| 1:46.0 | As societies grew more complex, bartering became less convenient, especially when humans introduced civilization and the concept of government. |
| 1:53.0 | Civilizations grew, economies developed, and trade grew increasingly complex. |
| 1:57.0 | In the ancient Middle East, civilizations like the Acadians and the Samarians developed writing |
... |
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