<P> In July 1972 , RCA began an eighteen - month test in a Kroger store in Cincinnati . Barcodes were printed on small pieces of adhesive paper , and attached by hand by store employees when they were adding price tags . The code proved to have a serious problem ; the printers would sometimes smear ink , rendering the code unreadable in most orientations . However , a linear code , like the one being developed by Woodland at IBM , was printed in the direction of the stripes , so extra ink would simply make the code `` taller '' while remaining readable . So on 3 April 1973 , the IBM UPC was selected as the NAFC standard . IBM had designed five versions of UPC symbology for future industry requirements : UPC A , B , C , D , and E . </P>
<P> In July 1972 , RCA began an eighteen - month test in a Kroger store in Cincinnati . Barcodes were printed on small pieces of adhesive paper , and attached by hand by store employees when they were adding price tags . The code proved to have a serious problem ; the printers would sometimes smear ink , rendering the code unreadable in most orientations . However , a linear code , like the one being developed by Woodland at IBM , was printed in the direction of the stripes , so extra ink would simply make the code `` taller '' while remaining readable . So on 3 April 1973 , the IBM UPC was selected as the NAFC standard . IBM had designed five versions of UPC symbology for future industry requirements : UPC A , B , C , D , and E . </P>
when did they start putting barcodes on products
when did they start putting barcodes on products
July 1972 ,
July 1972 ,