On the morning of June 26, 1974, at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio,
a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum became the first
grocery item scanned with a Universal Product Code, or UPC.

The result of years of scientific experimentation and industry cooperation, the UPC barcode would go on to be used well
beyond the grocery checkout counter, becoming a ubiquitous
feature of modern commerce, with billions of barcodes scanned
daily.