06/13/2026
The shopper was Clyde Dawson. The cashier was Sharon Buchanan. The price was 67 cents.
At 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974, a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, changed retail forever .
Dawson pulled a 10-pack of Juicy Fruit from his cart. Buchanan slid it over a laser scanner. Beep. The first commercial barcode had been read.
The technology had been in development for over 20 years—but on that Thursday morning, it finally worked. The pack of gum and the original receipt now rest at the Smithsonian, a quiet monument to the moment checkout lines got a little faster and inventory tracking got a lot smarter .
Sixty-seven cents. Ten sticks of gum. And the beginning of a global standard. 🛒🔲
