An era is coming to an end in the supermarket: the barcode will soon be history. It will be replaced by new 2D codes. Customers should benefit from this.
Munich – A significant change is imminent in the checkout area of supermarkets and discounters, which will affect all customers of Edeka, Rewe and Co. The barcode, also known as a barcode, is on the verge of extinction. The good, now 50-year-old black and white print on almost all products is to be replaced by a successor. At the cash registers, where a certain drink should never be placed on the conveyor belt, something else will be scanned in the future: the so-called 2D barcode. Consumers should benefit from this.
Barcode could soon be history: revolution at supermarket checkouts – first details known
The GS1, a standards organization, has decided to switch to 2027D barcodes from 2, the US magazine Axios reported. These are intended to replace the familiar barcodes that have so far been found on packaging at Rewe, Netto, Kaufland and Co. This marks the end of the era of old barcodes after 50 years. After consumers have already had to get used to the fact that certain brands are no longer available in supermarkets, the next drastic change follows.
The end of the barcode is approaching: Soon the well-known barcode will be replaced by the QR code. But this also has advantages. © Collage echo24.de / Photos: IMAGO / YAY Images and dpa / Jens Kalaene
2D barcodes should contain more information than previous barcodes
Unlike the simple UPC barcode printed on virtually every product in the world, 2D barcodes are designed to provide "an experience that the brand wants to give to the consumer," said Carrie Wilkie, Senior Wise President of GS1 North America.
Products are still scanned in the same way at checkout, but the improved barcodes are expected to open up a whole new world of real-time features such as loyalty points functionality, similar to Payback, which has now joined Edeka, games and coupons. From the 2D barcodes, which also include QR codes, retailers expect enormous improvements in inventory control.
50 years of barcodes – the end of an era
On April 3, 1973, a new standard known as the Universal Product Code (UPC) was introduced in the U.S. food market, known as a barcode (or barcode) in Germany. On June 26, 1974, the world's first product with a barcode was scanned at a supermarket in Ohio: a pack of Juicy Fruit chewing gum from Wrigley's. In Germany, the first barcode was scanned on October 1, 1977. On this day, the first barcode reader was put into operation in a branch of the retail chain "Kaiser's" in Trier – here, too, a pack of chewing gum was scanned.
From 1983 barcodes were also applied to wholesale packaging and cartons, and from 1995 they also found their way into the health sector. In 2023, the barcode turned 50 years old. According to GS1, the codes are currently scanned over six billion times a day.
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A variant of the 2D barcodes are the square QR codes, which can be scanned using a smartphone camera or special apps. While traditional barcodes can only contain pricing information, 2D codes can store a lot of additional information.
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For consumers, this means that shopping becomes more interactive and informative. In addition to the price, a wealth of other data is then also accessible to the customer – product information can then even be retrieved in different languages.
Revolution at the supermarket checkout: Aldi as a pioneer in Germany
Puma is the first company to announce the use of 2D barcodes in its U.S. stores and products, Wilkie said. These codes will inform about Puma's sustainability efforts and the materials in the shoes. In Australia and New Zealand, the first 2D codes are used for freshness indications of delicatessen and meat products. In Japan, a retailer is using the new codes to reduce food that has a shelf life of less than three days on demand.
It will probably take some time before the technology finds its way into Germany. The pioneer of the code revolution is the discounter Aldi, which has just launched a new private label. There, QR codes are already available – in addition to the barcode – on some meat products. Among other things, this allows customers to obtain information about the origin of animal products.