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George J. Laurer: Why We Created This Directory

Submitted by gjlaurer on Mon, 2009-06-29 15:04

 
The bar code revolution began in 1970 when an Ad Hoc Committee was formed. It consisted of CEO’s, Vice Chairmen, and other high ranking officers of grocery manufacturers and grocery distributors, both large and small. This committee of ten had various motivations, not the least of which was to reduce costs and pass some of these savings on to the public. When the U.P.C. was accepted by the industries in 1973, my company’s attorney and I, the inventor of the U.P.C. Barcode & Symbol, agreed not to patent or copyright either the code or the symbol.  One reason, for sure, was to avoid setting up any road blocks that would slow the implementation but another was to insure that all food retailers and manufacturers no matter what their size would be able to take advantage of this technology.
 
In keeping with this objective the initial charge for a “prefix” allowing 100,000 item umbers was only $250 and there were no annual fees. This was increased to $300 in 1978. Also in 1978 UPCC (the predecessor to UCC) ended its contract with DCI/DNB because they believed the $286,000 a year to maintain the database was too high. The work was given to Dick Mindlin with a projected cost of $125,000 a year. The membership was less than 5000 and it was predicted to max out at 6000. UPCC was reluctant to extend membership to companies not involved with groceries.
 
Since then, UCC recognized the need to open the registration to all businesses. The membership grew to over 100,000 in the next 15 years. UCC (now GS1) has accomplished many things: set standards, worked toward standards for RFI, published helpful information, persuaded retailers in the US to modify their programs to accept EAN symbols, and much more. Many of these have contributed to world trade, and reduced costs to consumers, manufactures, and retailers. All this great and useful work does not come without a price. By the year 2005, GS1’s (a not for profit organization) operating expenses grew 3,400% to just under $42,000,000. Unfortunately, other than consumers, most of the advantages went to the largest vendors and retailer.
 
The small business owners and fledgling entrepreneurs were left behind. The cost to buy a minimum quantity of numbers from GS1 increased to over $700 and a required annual fee of $150. This may not seem like a lot of money to some, but to an entrepreneur with little financial resources, that amount often was a make or break situation. The potential businessman might be a band with his first CD or video, a cook with a new BBQ sauce, or a person producing greeting cards. Even Mom and Pop retail outlets use scanners and automated programs to run their business efficiently.
 
Therefore a U.P.C. number and symbol was necessary to market a new product anywhere. My web site, www.laurerupc.com, has been for more than a decade dedicated to helping people starting or operating small businesses understand the U.P.C.  Six or more years ago it came to my attention that some purchasers of a U.P.C. number from UCC could legally sell item numbers or subsets of their purchased prefix. I listed resellers and explained how one could obtain a legal U.P.C. number at a more reasonable price.
 
Most retail outlets accept resold numbers without question. Of course another problem exists. What if a person just made up a number or stole a number? Kroger’s and Wal-Mart’s solution is to not accept a product unless the U.P.C. number was issued by GS1 or UCC. This is for good reason. If a product with a rogue U.P.C. number got into their system, it could cause untold havoc. There was no authoritative source they could go to verify the legitimacy of a U.P.C. item number. This points out the need for a reliable directory.
 
I am committed to preventing my invention from doing harm. Therefore, I have teamed up with a few friends to construct and maintain this site. Our sincere hope is that it will grow, and thus eliminate the pirating of U.P.C. numbers, improve the integrity of the overall data base by reducing the number of illegitimate numbers, and ultimately persuade large retailers like Kroger and Wal-Mart to accept resold numbers. In the future it will provide a method to download product descriptions directly to a retailer’s system since the vender of the product will be able to input his information to our directory. Wholesalers provide this capability now but many of these low volume products are not distributed through wholesalers. GS1 will also benefit from our efforts because the U.P.C. number resource is finite and numbers are running out.
 
We want to make this endeavor a success but we can’t do it without your help. Please make any comments and/or suggestion you think are appropriate.
 
George J. Laurer
Inventor of the U.P.C. Barcode and Symbol

Bill's Blog U.P.C Symbols in an On-Line World

Submitted by bdmc on Wed, 2009-06-03 22:57

U.P.C. Symbols in an On-Line World

What is the future of retail U.P.C. barcode symbols and scanners in an increasingly on-line world?  Does the value of one of the most impactful identification schemes ever developed have a future in the point, click, and enter your credit card world?  Upon the arrival of the U.P.C., market data became available from the market itself, replacing early statistical sample tests.  But does a retail symbol have relevance in this on-line world?

I'm sure it does.  Think creatively.  Just as few understood back at its establishment just how much the application of the barcode identification would change retailling, few may appreciate the new roles for the barcode symbol when the retail transaction takes place between a browser and the server.

The first role logically would be in fullfillment.  On-line retailers are forced to handle in their warehouses small quantities and single units of products where previously they moved case lots to brick and mortar stores.  Symbol scanners help identify the correct items in the selection process and help validate the proper mix of items for each order in the shipping area.  Incorporating barcode symbol scanning into picking may reduce the cost of labor.  Summaries of which products were picked by time period will help in the assignment of people to sections of the fulfillment areas. In fulfilling on-line orders, the U.P.C. barcode can help on-line vendors to compete more responsively.  It may facilitate tracking which employee processed which order.  This can be useful for internal measurements and for external recognition and marketing, e.g. "Your order was checked by Bob."

On-line consumer services will become practical when customers using the ubiquitous cell-phone camera can scan the item to order a replacement item or part for an item.  It's easy to imagine consumer services that spring up where consumers can send an image of the barcode symbol and get a listing of on-line sites that have the item in stock with its current price.  I suppose one can also imagine groups of on-line retailers that provide a similar service but within a select group of on-line outlets.

Even in the age of point and click, the barcode symbol has a contribution to make.  And of course, all those brick and mortar stores will not go away overnight.

-- Bill Selmeier