Primary packaging coding was revolutionized on June 26, 1974 at 8:01 AM. At Marsh Supermarket in Troy, OH, a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum was the first product ever scanned for purchase. (It was 67 cents if you were wondering.)
After realizing that printing technology at the time could not legibly print IBM’s original circular bullseye format, engineer George Laurer designed the vertical line bar code. This allowed all of their printers—even those from World War I era—the ability to print a machine-readable code (MRC) format without smearing.