Patch Notes
VERSION HISTORY: The Beep That Built Modern Shopping
28:55
A pack of chewing gum changed the world in nineteen seventy-four.
That was the first product scanned at a supermarket checkout using the Universal Product Code, launching a technology that would transform retail, inventory management, and global supply chains.
But the barcode's story actually began decades earlier, with an unusual idea inspired by Morse code.
Wade Mercer traces the technology…